Power
by Xenophili
Summary: The Noah is the mafia. They control the banks, the government, and your life. Kanda is the only one trying to take them down, but when he stumbles across Allen Walker he finds that the mafia goes deeper than he thought.
1. Prelude

We live in a world where choices are made for you, where everything is controlled by people and things you can't see.

You can't touch.

You know nothing about.

But what happens when these things mix with the wrong people? What happens when the power to control your life falls into the hands of someone who would use it to bring out the worst in you, and turn you against yourself and the people you once loved?

Against the government you put all your faith into.

Your trust.

Your future.

What if the ones who took this power were trying to destroy the world as you knew it?

What if there was no one there to stop them?

What would happen?

What would you do then?

In a place where your future no longer existed.


	2. How It All Started

**Sunday, November 27****th****, XXXX**

**2300 hours**

The city's main Branch Police Department had already switched to its night shift people. Most of the ones who worked the shift previously had already left an hour ago. The ones who were still there were most likely trying to finish up some work left to the last minute or others that had no other time to do it and their deadlines were drawing near.

One such detective was standing in his office looking over his desk.

His long black hair was tied up into a neat high ponytail and dangled over his left shoulder. He wore a long-sleeved black button-up shirt whose sleeves were rolled up messily to the elbows, and he also wore black dress pants and black boots to match. It was his signature outfit.

He was contemplating something while staring intensely at a map of the city that had red dots in certain areas, blue circles over suspicious buildings, and yellow triangles dotted throughout the city. However he didn't seem to be getting anywhere and was just about to crumble up the map in frustration when his partner came bursting into his office.

"We got a lead!" the man yelled to the detective. This person wore simple khaki pants and a light blue button-up shirt whose sleeves were also pulled up to the elbow. His deep red-orange hair hung down to his neck and curved out in spikes. The black eye-patch that went over his right eye covered half of his face. He had a beige trench coat slung over his left arm.

The detective's head shot up immediately at those four words. He stared disbelievingly at his partner for a second to validate the statement before voicing the question in his head.

"What kind of lead?"

"A live one. We're going mobile, now!"

The detective didn't need telling twice and grabbed his black trench coat and car keys before following his partner out of his office.

"Explain," the detective gave the one-word order and the man next to him jumped into the explanation, reading off of a torn memo paper that had been scribbled messily on.

"It's at the old Marley warehouse. An anonymous just tipped us off. According to them there's a really big deal going down right now and we already got the 'OK' from Chief to go check this out immediately and validate their claim. If it's real we call for back-up. "

"Are they on stand-by?" The detective asked, glancing around the room noticing it was completely deserted.

"Everyone on the night team, and Chief is calling everyone else involved in the case."

They reached the back doors to the building that lead to the garage and headed straight for a department-owned black Lincoln.

The detective was already in the car and starting up the engine while the redhead was still opening the car door. He put it in reverse and was starting to drive away while his partner was still half outside of the car.

"Whoa hey stop stop stop stop!" he panicked and yelled to the driver. The detective slammed on the breaks causing the panicking man to fall back out of the car and onto the ground.

"Hurry your ass up! I want to actually get there before they get a chance to leave!" the agitated man yelled.

"It's okay Yuu, a few seconds won't kill you," the redhead said teasingly while finally getting in the car and securely closing the door.

The moment the door clicked the detective screeched into reverse once more and backed all the way out of the garage without using his mirrors and onto the street. He had changed gears into drive so fast his partner didn't even see him do it, and they were speeding down the deserted street faster than he thought possible.

"Or maybe it will," the passenger said, holding onto his seat for dear life.

"Just tell me how to get to the damn Marley warehouse and I'll think about not killing you for using my first name later."

"You have to take a left he-" he didn't even have the time to finish his sentence before the detective abruptly made the car swerve to the left and narrowly miss hitting the curb. It took him half the length of the street to level out the car and continue going straight.

"Now what?" he snapped at the passenger for more directions.

"Y-you keep going straight and then m-make a right six blocks down, j-just before the bank," he managed to stutter out. In all the time that he was Detective Kanda Yuu's partner he never got used to driving with the mad man.

They reached the block and Kanda made a sharp right, the car wheel's screeching in protest.

"Go two more blocks down, and make a left."

After ten agonizing minutes of driving and direction giving they neared the warehouse. Kanda had slowed down considerably and was examining the warehouse to find possible escape routes from the building.

"Lavi, call back to HQ and tell them to station out throughout the city. If this shit's real I want to give them no chance to get away."

"Already on it," Lavi answered as he grabbed a radio walky-talky from out of his inner trench coat pocket and radioed directly to the Chief's office.

"Yo Chief! Can you all go mobile right now? Yuu wants you all to get into positions around the city."

At that moment Kanda slammed on the breaks, making Lavi fly out of his seat and hit the windshield in front of him with his head.

"Ow, damn it!"

"That's Detective Kanda to you, rookie!"

"Yeah yeah, like I haven't heard that one before. Shit that really hurt! You know, I might actually get mad at you if this leaves a mark," Lavi complained while rubbing his forehead and listening to the radio for word from the Chief.

"It's not my fault you didn't put a damn seatbelt on."

"Says you! The man who breaks more traffic laws in a day than somebody would in their life. And you're not even wearing a seatbelt! You're supposed to be setting an example for little children mister _Detective_!"

"Lavi, shut _up_!"And he did. He laid back against his seat, arms crossed over his chest, and settled into a mood between brooding and pouting.

"Will you stop acting like a fucking five-year-old? And I thought you were radioing Chief!"

"Huh? Oh, right! He hasn't responded yet. Lemme see if I can get someone else on the line. Hello? This is Red here on line A, does anyone copy? Over."

"This is number thirty-two and I copy you loud and clear," a woman's voice came back through the radio. "What's the problem?"

"We can't get through to Chief so we need second-in-command's 'OK' to get all units to their posts."

"Already on it. We've dispersed half of the city's police and the rest are on stand-by waiting for more orders."

"Copy that." Lavi responded back into the receiver and put it back into one of his inner pockets.

As they rounded another corner Kanda suddenly stopped the car again, and once more Lavi was sent flying into the windshield.

"Shit, what was that for?!" he exclaimed to the crazy driver.

"Get out."

"Huh?" Lavi asked, surprised by the sudden command.

"We're going on foot from here."

When Lavi had gotten his car door open, letting in the chilly night air into the car, and looked around to where they were he saw that they were behind the Marley warehouse.

The warehouse sat by the pier where most of the other warehouses did. Old and run down, it's been off limits because of faulty wiring and is said to be capable of falling down at any time. Also for lack of better words, it was one of the biggest warehouses around.

"This place is HUGE!" Lavi proclaimed in a voice Kanda wasn't too happy with and hit him across the head.

"You idiot, do you _want _to let them know we're here?" he hissed through gritted teeth.

"You just seem to get a kick out of hurting me, don't you?"

"Just shut up and put this on," Kanda said, handing Lavi and earpiece.

"We're going to split up and we need to be in contact at all times."

"Do you just have these on you wherever you go?"Lavi said teasingly.

"Keep up with your little antics and you'll find it hard to eat for a month."

"Yes sir," Lavi said, completely laid back and not worried in the slightest.

They started making their way to the warehouse and as they neared it Kanda pulled out his pistol. They were at a back door now and Kanda leaned against the building with his right shoulder and directed Lavi with two fingers to go around the other side of the building. He moved to another side where some window's were, but trying to look through them proved useless. They were so covered with grime and dirt it would have been hard to tell if there were lights on inside.

"What do you have on your side?" Kanda whispered into his earpiece.

"Nothing. These windows are too damn dirty to see anything through."

"Do you have a door you can get into the building with?" Kanda asked noticing one on his side. He tried it, and it was unlocked.

"Yeah, and it's unlocked."

"Same here. Alright, we're moving inside. "

"What? Just like that?"

"_Yes _just like that." Kanda hissed. He swung open his door and pointed his gun straight ahead of him. Checking both left and right he found that there was nobody inside, from what he could see anyways.

"It's pitch black in here!" came a voice off to Kanda's left. He instinctively pointed his gun in that direction and cocked it, the barrel staring straight into the face of his partner.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! It's me, it's me!" Lavi said in a panic, waving his hands defensively in front of him.

Kanda had already identified him long before he had said anything, but still held the gun to his face. The situation for Lavi became unnerving and he slapped the gun away.

"Quit it already!" He half-yelled to his partner, not wanting to raise his voice too much.

"You can never be too careful," was Kanda's automatic answer and he disarmed his gun. He started moving to one end of the warehouse, leaving Lavi where he stood.

"Too careful of what? Hey!"

Their eyes were now adjusting to the darkness and the little light coming in from the two open doors at either side of the room helped only in the slightest. From what they could see the warehouse was completely deserted.

"Another empty lead, huh," Lavi exhaled, bringing a hand up to his neck and rubbing some stiffness out of it. "I thought we were actually going to get somewhere this time," he complained some more while following Kanda around in the darkness. Kanda himself was not paying attention to Lavi. He was still examining the warehouse. He wasn't about to give up as easily as his partner did.

"Hey, come on, let's go back. There's nothing he-" he was cut off in his own sentence as he walked right into Kanda's back. The man had stopped in his tracks without saying anything and Lavi hadn't even noticed.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized, but Kanda wasn't paying him any attention. He was listening intensely for something he thought he heard.

"Yuu?" Lavi questioned.

"Shh", he said, holding up a finger to silence his partner.

He must have heard what he was listening for, because his eyes widened a fraction and his body stiffened.

"There's another floor to this building," he stated, walking quickly to one end of the warehouse.

"There is? Wait, where are you going??"

"Keep your voice down, and go to the opposite corner from this one. There's another flight of stairs. Take them and wait by the door. Listen and see if you hear anything." Lavi did as he was told and for the first time that night took out his own pistol.

He climbed the stairs noiselessly and held his gun up by his right ear pointing towards the ceiling. He put his left ear close to the door and listened tentatively. Not hearing anything, he turned to his earpiece and listened for something from Kanda's end.

"Anything?" he finally asked after ten seconds of silence. He got no response and was about to ask again when he heard gunshots.

"Kanda!" he panicked and yelled across the warehouse.

It sounded as though someone had knocked in the metal door that led to the second floor. It must have been Kanda, for mere seconds later he addressed Lavi through his earpiece, "the door has been smelted to its frame. You won't be able to get in if you don't shoot the hinges," was all he said.

Lavi took this time to relax hearing that his partner hadn't been shot. He turned back to his own door and blew off the hinges and kicked it in.

It was just as dark upstairs as it was downstairs, if not even more so. There were no windows upstairs and the air was filled with mold, making it hard to breathe.

"Lavi, you got your flashlight on you?" the sudden voice made him jump, but when he realized what it said a sudden consciousness of what was in his pockets dawned of him.

"Oh right! How could I forget?" he said while rummaging amongst his inner pockets and finally pulling out a small black flashlight. "Now that I think about it, why didn't we use these on the first floor? That would have been a really smart thing to do," he said while examining the room with his new found light.

"Are you stupid? What if there was an ambush waiting downstairs and you just took out your flashlight and started shining it every which-way?" Kanda scolded through the earpiece.

"Oh, right." Lavi found Kanda's light and walked over to him, asking if he found anything.

"Nothing," he grumbled. Lavi didn't know if he was disappointed or frustrated and settled on that it was somewhere between both.

"I swear I heard…" Kanda trailed off, but thought twice before voicing his thoughts. "Never mind, come on, let's go find a damn light switch for this building."

"Right."

Kanda moved back down to the first floor from Lavi's kicked in door. He was so lost in his musings he didn't even notice Lavi wasn't following him aynmore.

He searched the first floor by himself and after ten whole minutes of feeling the walls with his hand blindly for a switch he found one. It was right next to the door that he had first entered the building from. Flipping it on he turned back to the room to see how much light he had accomplished in turning on and what he saw was not what he expected to find at all.

"Holy shit."

Lining every single wall from the top to the bottom in the warehouse were guns, and the floor was littered with boxes of bullets. They ranged to practically every type of gun in the world.

"Colt, Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Taurus, Luger," Kanda walked to the middle of the warehouse and started naming the guns as he saw them. "Mauser, Korth, Charter, Winchester, Marlin, Remington, Mannlicher, Stoeger , Greenier, Derringer, Pepperbox, Destroyer…Shit these guys are fucking loaded." He rotated in place for a few minutes just looking at the ammunition that filled the warehouse.

"Lavi radio back to HQ and get some back-up down here, now," Kanda addressed to his partner. When no response came Kanda turned around, ready to shout at Lavi when he realized that he wasn't there.

"Lavi?" Kanda questioned, turning back around and looking for a sign of his partner. "Lavi!" he yelled. "I swear if this is a fucking joke I'm going to shoot your brains out!"

He started to get worried now that Lavi hadn't come out of hiding. Usually threats like that made him stop messing around.

"Shit," Kanda cursed himself for his luck while pulling his gun out once more and cocking it._ Count on Lavi to get in trouble._

He made his way back to the stairs for the second floor. There were some working lights on up there which made it easier to see.

There was practically nothing in this room. There were a few boxes in a corner, a termite- eaten table, and a small wooden stool with only three legs.

It didn't take long to find Lavi. He was lying on the floor in the middle of the room, sporting an enormous red bump on the side of his head, and it was bleeding. Laying next to him on the ground was a red brick.

"Lavi!" Kanda refrained from running over to his partner's aid and instead pointed his gun around the room. Finding no immediate danger he ran over to Lavi.

"Lavi, Lavi wake up!" Kanda said shaking him slightly. It seemed as though Lavi was frowning as he regained his consciousness.

"Ow, damn it. My head hurts," he grumbled while sitting up. He put a hand to his head and drew it back quickly when the part he touched started stinging. Looking at his own hand he saw blood on it. Surprised, he put his hand back to the place he just touched and gingerly felt the area.

"What the hell? It feels like somebody just hit me."

"And somebody probably did," said Kanda cautiously, keeping his voice purposely low.

He suddenly turned around, his hand reaching to the place on the ground where he placed his gun right next to him, only to find himself staring down its barrel. Someone else had it, and they were pointing right at Kanda's face.

"Who the hell are you?" was the question addressed to Kanda from the person holding the gun, and it surprised Kanda when he saw it was just a little kid.

The white hair that he saw on the child was misleading for a moment as he thought it was an old man. However, moving his focus on to the person's face, he couldn't have been older than sixteen years old. What was even stranger was the scar or tattoo or birthmark or whatever, that went down the length of the kid's face. It was a deep red and started at his forehead in the shape of a pentagon and moved down his face and over his left eye in a thin line that finally stopped in the middle of his cheek. He was also not looking in the best of conditions. He looked frail and skinny. Never mind, skinny was an understatement. The kid looked absolutely starved, and the large grey hoodie and baggy grey sweatpants he wore did nothing to hide it.

"I said, 'who the hell are you?'" the kid demanded again. Kanda hadn't realized that he was staring, and it must have been irritating the kid.

"Detective Kanda Yuu from the Main Branch Police Department," was his automatic answer, "And my partner and Rookie Detective, Lavi Bookman."

The kid's eyes flickered over to Lavi for but a second and Kanda took that chance to snatch his gun away from the kid, grab both of his arms behind his back, turn him around, and slam him into the wall. He brought his gun up to the kids head and pressed it into his white hair, making sure the kid could feel it on his skull. He felt the kids' body tense up at the touch of the cool metal on his skin. Behind him he could hear Lavi yelling his protests about 'this kind of treatment' but paid him no mind. He had his full attention directed on the kid.

"Now that we've told you who _we_ are, why don't you tell us who _you_ are, and the reason why a little kid like you would be in a place like this?" he said into the kids ear. When he didn't answer Kanda got aggravated and started pulling the kids arms upward behind his back, inflicting pain to him. He heard the kid gasp, but that was the only reaction he got out of him. He pushed the gun even harder into the kids head.

"I said, what's your name, _boy_?"

"A-Allen Walker. Let me go!" the kid tried to free himself, but it was no use. Kanda held him down like a rock.

"Ok, good. We seem to be making some progress here. Now let's move on. What are you doing with all these guns?"

"Guns?" Lavi and Allen said at the same time.

"Down stairs, this place is loaded with them," Kanda was addressing Lavi when he spoke. "Go downstairs and radio back to HQ. Tell them to start sending units down here, now," and with that Lavi was gone. His exclamation of surprise was heard when he saw the ammunition downstairs.

"Now, tell me about the guns," Kanda turned his attention back to the kid.

"I don't know anything about them, I swear!"

"Bullshit, how could you have been in this warehouse and not seen them?"

"I was locked up in here. I wasn't downstairs when they must've brought all the guns in." Kanda remembered that the doors were smelted and there was no way for a scrawny kid like him to have opened them.

Loosening his grip on the kid, he remembered something he had said, "Wait a minute, who's 'them'?" However, Kanda noticed the slip of the tongue too late. Allen had wrestled his way out of Kanda's loose grasp and bolted in the direction of the stairs Lavi hadn't taken.

"Wait, stop!" Kanda yelled as he chased after the kid. Allen didn't even bother with the stairs and just jumped down from the banister on the second story, landing on both hands and feet. The impact to the ground hadn't even fazed him as not even a second later he was sprinting for the open door closest to him, and a second later he was out of sight.

"Little shit," Kanda said, surprised at how fast the white-haired kid disappeared.

"I probably just lost my biggest lead."

Cursing himself once more for letting him get away he talked into his earpiece to find out what was going on with Lavi.

"Is back-up coming yet?"

"Yeah, they'll be here in seconds" Lavi responded, however he didn't sound right.

"Lavi, what's wrong?" Kanda asked now fully alarmed.

"It's Chief, he's dead."

**I know it's not a cliffhanger when somebody you don't know dies, but this really was the best place to stop it. Yay this is the first chapter and only reviews will tell if I continue with this story.**

**And I put up a pole on my page asking if you want this to be a Kandi (KandaxLavi) fan fiction, Yullen (KandaxAllen) fan fiction, or should I just keep them straight? The outcome will affect the story entirely, and that's why I'm putting it on the first chapter.**

**Anyways review, vote, and stay strong.**

**-Xenophili**


	3. What We Didn't Know

**Monday, November 28****th****, XXXX**

**100 hours (1:00 A.M)**

The unexpected news made Kanda lapse into a state of indifference.

He made his way down the stairs and stepped onto the ground floor just as police came bursting in through all doors.

"Clean this place out. I want very single weapon, every single bullet accounted for. Make sure that list makes it to my desk," Kanda ordered out to the masses.

"Yes, sir!" responded the police in his immediate area.

He found his way over to Lavi who was standing by the back entrance. He was leaning with his back against the wall, hands in his trench coat pockets, staring directly at Kanda. The wound on his head was being tended to by one of the medical officers, but Lavi shooed them away when Kanda approached.

"Where is he?"

"Kanda, I-"

"Know your place rookie, and just tell me where he is." The fact that Kanda didn't even yell, glare, or threaten Lavi probably scared him more than all of those three combined. He just seemed, tired.

"He's in his office, back at the Main Branch building," Lavi stated, and they both simultaneously started moving towards the black Lincoln they had arrived in.

"Maybe you should let me drive?" Lavi suggested concernedly.

"In your dreams. If you were to mess this car up they'd come after my head, not yours," Kanda replied in an almost half-smirk.

_Are you kidding? You're more likely to damage this thing than I'll ever be._

Kanda was in the car first once again, but this time he waited until his partner was securely inside as well with a seatbelt on before he started it and drove off, leaving the sea of police cars behind.

They drove in silence all the way back to the police station. Kanda didn't even drive like a mad man anymore. All he did was run every single red light they passed, which is something huge in Kanda's case.

Making it back to the station they both got out of the car and opened the back doors to the building. It was the complete opposite as to when Kanda was in there only two hours earlier. The place was swarming with police. Some were equipped with cameras and every one of them was wearing gloves.

Sighing, Kanda walked over to the Chief's office with Lavi following silently behind. The door was wide open and inside was where the police were concentrated the most. Some were just standing outside the office as on-lookers and others were inside taking pictures of Kanda could only guess what. Two police officers walked out of the office carrying manila envelopes in their hands and upon seeing Kanda stopped to hand them to him.

"Detective, these are the only traces of evidence that could be found in the room so far. There isn't much to see really except for-"

"A dead body," Kanda finished the statement for the officer. He took a pair of latex gloves handed to him from the second officer and took one of the envelopes and opened it. The first officer jumped into an explanation.

"The Chief was shot in the middle of the forehead. In that envelope is the bullet we just extracted from his head." Kanda took out the plastic baggie from inside and examined the bullet. It was covered with blood and looked like any other bullet he's seen before.

"We don't know the model of gun used to shoot it yet," the police officer added as Kanda handed the package to Lavi to look at.

"What's in that one?" Kanda questioned, and the second officer stepped forward and handed the envelope to him.

"This was what the Chief was holding in his hand when he died. We've looked at it, but we don't know what it means," the second officer explained as Kanda opened the second envelope. He reached his hand into the bag and knew what he was going to pull out before he even saw it.

"It's just a card with a star on it," the second officer said, completely confused.

Kanda stared at it for a few seconds before turning to the two officers and dismissing them. "Take the bullet down to forensics and get the tests done. I'll hold on to this for a while," he said, holding up the card. Lavi handed the envelope with the bullet back to one of the officers and they both left. Kanda and Lavi just stood there staring at the card in Kanda's hand.

Just as the officer had said, the card was completely blank on both sides except for a blood red Pentagon in the middle of one side.

"So it happened again, huh?" Lavi sighed.

"We'll have to get this checked anyways," replied Kanda blankly.

"What for? We already know it's Chief's blood," Lavi said.

"Standard procedure," Kanda said, just as blankly. He placed the card back into the envelope and handed it to Lavi. They both walked into the Chief's office and looked straight at his desk.

The Chief was an old man, in his late fifty's or so. His head was bald at the top and the remaining hair on his head was completely white. He was wearing a white collar shirt with dark kahki pants which were now both stained with blood.

He was sitting there, head thrown back against his seat, arms dangling limply from his chairs' sides. There was a trail of blood running down the side of his wrinkled face from the bullet hole in his head. The wall behind him was splattered with blood, indicating the bullet made it all the way to the back of his head and cracked through his skull to allow blood to escape and explode on the wall.

"This is an open and shut case, really, if you think about it," Lavi addressed to Kanda. "We already know _they _are behind this. I mean, they even left their little business card to let us know it was them! We just won't be able to stick this to any individual."

"That's not our job, anyways," Kanda said, staring in the Chief's general direction. "We won't be in charge of this case, just looking over it because it's indirectly involved in our own."

They stood in silence for a few minutes before Lavi spoke up again, "you know, that kid back at the warehouse-"

"I know. He had the mark."

"To think a little kid like him would be involved in something like this," Lavi said disbelievingly, "It's just unthinkable."

"Well he must be pretty damn important in order for _them_ to have recruited him at such an age," Kanda stated.

"You think so?"

"I already know so, and that's why we're going to find him."

"What are you serious?!" Lavi yelled. Some police turned to looked at him and at the same time Kanda hit him across the head. He dragged both of them out of the Chief's office and outside the front doors before he addressed Lavi again.

"Yes I'm serious you idiot. He's a weak link because he's so young. He'll be easier to find and coax information out of."

"No no, I know that, but I mean, how are going to _find_ him? This city's huge!"

"You should already know how," Kanda said, rolling his eyes. At Lavi's confused face he went on to elaborate, "He's going to return to the warehouse. All we have to do, is wait there."

Lavi was still confused, "What makes you so sure he's going to come back?"

Kanda put his hand into his trench coat pocket and dug out a small item. He held it up in front of his face and showed it to Lavi.

"Because of this."

*******

**Monday, November 28****th****, XXXX**

**130 hours (1:30 A.M)**

Finally free from the place he had been kept in for a whole week, Allen Walker couldn't help but run as fast as he could as soon as he had the chance to get away from the warehouse. He really thought he was going to die in that place.

_Damn mafia._

He continued running down the deserted street. It was cold outside from the winter wind blowing through the city. The rain from earlier in the evening still stuck to the buildings and made puddles on the sidewalk. It was too cold for the water to evaporate, yet too warm for it to freeze over. Allen just stepped right through the puddles, the chilly water splashing onto the bottom of his pants, but he paid it no mind. He was too concentrated on getting as far away from the warehouse as possible to notice much anything.

Finally stopping at an intersection to catch his breath he noticed he was missing something.

_Shit._

He dug his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. Not finding what he was looking for he went on to search his pants pockets. He still didn't find it.

_You've got to be kidding me, _the kid thought disbelievingly as he stared back in the direction he just came from.

_There's no way I'm going back there, _but there was nothing definite in his mind when he thought that. He already knew he was going to go back to the warehouse whether he wanted to or not. The item he was missing was important enough to risk his life for, but he couldn't just go back now and waltz right in the place with it infested with police. He figured he'd have to wait it out for a couple of days.

Turning the corner and heading down the street he walked into an alleyway. Halfway down he turned to face the building on his right and kneeled down in front of a small vent. Removing the gate that covered the hole Allen slipped his body through, he was just small enough to fit through it.

When his feet touched solid ground Allen reached back up and replaced the gate on top of the hole and secured it in place. He was a good seven feet below street level now. Turning back around to face the room he was in he walked to the middle of it and blindly reached upwards searching for a string dangling from the ceiling. In finding it, he pulled it, and the small light bulb that it was connected to flickered on, illuminating the small room with its light.

Putting the condition of the room into simple terms, it was unsanitary. It was hard to believe any human could live in such a place. Empty liquor bottles littered the floor. They varied from Jamaican Rum to Dry Gin to unlabeled bottles of Vodka. Unopened bottles were cluttered in a corner around and on top of a brown wooden shelf standing lopsidedly in a corner.

The floor was covered in a thick layer of dirt, making it seem as though the floor _was_ made out of dirt. There was a beaten up and shabby looking table leaning up against the corner of the farthest wall. All its legs were uneven and there were random items placed underneath them to try to level them out. There were two chairs next to it, one was tipped on its side and the other was standing up, but only had three legs. The missing leg had been broken off and thrown across the room by Allen himself in one of his fits of rage. On the table stood a large wooden box, among other things. Its top was open, and a large pile of what looked like grass from a distance poked out from the top.

Allen walked over to the liquor shelf and grabbed a brand new bottle of Bombay Sapphire's Dry Gin. He popped out the cork with his bare hands and downed a quarter of the bottles' contents. Holding it in one hand he walked over to the table and along the way picked a piece of brown scrap paper from off the floor.

Reaching the table he set the bottle down on it and reached his hand into the brown box, grabbing a handful of the grass look-alike. He placed it in the middle of the brown paper and started wrapping it expertly around the green substance.

Now holding an oval-shaped cigar in his hand he took a lighter from the table and lit the end of it. Bringing the opposite end up to his mouth he breathed in deeply. Leaning his head back he let out a ring of smoke that slowly dissipated into the air. He stood up the fallen chair and sat down on it heavily. Reaching back to the table for the bottle of alcohol he didn't even bother with a glass as he brought the rim to his mouth and drank deeply. A small trail of the alcohol escaped his mouth and slid down his chin. He missed the taste of the drugs and alcohol that his body had been deprived of for a whole week.

*******

**Monday, November 28****th****, XXXX**

**600 hours (6:00 A.M)**

The hours spent at the police department were eventless and long. Nobody was allowed to go home, or else, nobody wanted to. After the pictures were taken and the crime scene evaluated to more than its fullest extent the Chief's body was taken down to the morgue. His office was turned almost literally inside out from police searching it for just about four hours.

Kanda and Lavi were sitting in Kanda's office waiting for the tests results on the only two pieces of evidence there were.

Kanda was sitting at his desk staring at the red, yellow, and blue map again. Lavi had fallen asleep on his mahogany couch in a sitting position, left arm propped up on the couch's arm holding his head in his hand. It was relatively quiet in the room for you could not hear the chatter of the people from the other side of the door. The only real noise to be heard was the ticking of the clock that hung above and behind Kanda's desk on the wall.

When someone knocked on the door to the office Lavi woke up immediately and stood up from where he was sitting while Kanda followed in suit. Lavi opened the office door and an Asian man around the same height as Kanda wearing a lab coat walked in. He had short black hair that spiked out from his head. He was carrying a manila folder along with the two manila envelopes that held the two pieces of evidence.

"Shifu, what did the test results say?" Kanda addressed the man now standing in front of him.

The man handed Kanda the folder and envelopes in his hand while responding to his question, "Something quite shocking, actually."

Lavi walked over and stood beside Kanda to look over the information as he opened the manila folder.

"According to the tests, the gun that shot the bullet that killed Chief was one of our own."

"One of our own?! You're not saying that, one of _our_ police officers shot him, are you??" Kanda had not expected that answer. He flipped through the papers and reached the page that went into more detail about the gun. Shifu went on to explain as Kanda read down the page.

"It was a Taurus PT 92, a standard one. Funny thing is the bullet was shot through a silencer."

"Wait a minute Taurus's don't have any silencers. Are you sure you got your information right?" Kanda looked at him skeptically.

"You're talking to a professional here, detective," Shifu said, a hint of indignation in his voice.

"How is it that you know it's been shot through a silencer?" Lavi questioned, not following the entire flow of the conversation.

"You already know that when a bullet is shot the gun leaves special marks on the bullet right? Almost like the guns' fingerprints, in a manner of speaking," he looked to Lavi to make sure he was following. When he saw him nod he continued. "Well, a silencer is an extra attachment to the barrel of the gun, but not part of the gun, and thus does everything in its own way. The hole in a silencer is smaller than the barrel's hole it's attached to by about a millimeter. This forces the bullet, when shot, through the hole and at the same time lessens the explosive sound a bullet makes when exploding from the barrel, thus the name 'silencer'."

"But wait, I still don't get it, how do you know the bullet was shot _from_ a silencer?" Lavi asked, tilting his head some in confusion.

"Because the silencer also leaves marks," Shifu answered knowingly. "They overlap with the ones the barrel makes while they're still hot and fresh, and mold into completely different marks. However, unlike how each gun has its own fingerprint, silencers' marks are unique to their brand, and we don't carry silencers for average police to use or even in a place where they can be easily accessed. "

"Which means…What, exactly?"asked Lavi.

"Which means," answered Kanda, now getting annoyed at his partner's lack of intelligence, "That the silencer was one of their own, they got it somewhere else."

"Then, shouldn't it be easy to just find out the brand, where they bought it, and track them down that way?" Lavi directed his question to Kanda.

"No, you idiot. If you've been following this conversation at all, you'll have heard us say that Taurus's don't have silencers! Which _means_, it was custom-made to fit that one specific gun, which also _means _that this was a predetermined murder, And who's better at customizing things than-"

"The mafia", Lavi said under his breath.

Now Shifu was the one confused with the flow of the conversation, but he held his tongue.

"And knowing them, they didn't leave the gun or the silencer behind. Just the bullet and a damn card," Kanda whispered to himself.

"Did you check the surveillance cameras?" Lavi questioned.

"We did, but from six o' clock P.M to two hours ago when we checked them they were turned off."

"As expected, they leave no traces," Kanda exhaled. He was exhausted and just wanted to sleep right now. "Thank you, Shifu. Is there anything else?" Kanda asked before dismissing him.

"Yeah, about that card," Shifu said, pointing at the manila envelopes in Kanda's hand, "That pentagon on it was drawn in the Chief's blood."

A brief moment of silence hung over the room before Kanda spoke up again. "I see, thank you Shifu, for everything."

Shifu just shrugged and said "It's my job. See you later," and he turned around and walked out the door.

"They'll be moving again, won't they?" Lavi asked Kanda. He stood there in silence, staring at a page in the manila envelope before answering Lavi.

"Another city, and we don't even know where they're going next." He suddenly turned to face Lavi, a determined look in his eyes as he said "We have to find that kid."

**Ooooooh Allen's a druggie! And an alcoholic to boot!**

**This chapter was pretty bad, I'll admit it. I didn't go into too much detail about some things, like how Allen did the whole cigar thing, because I don't want to get into trouble or teaching children how to make their own joints *cough cough***

**Also, the whole gun business. Yeahhhh I kinda made up **_**some**_** things about the silencer because I also don't want to get in trouble about teaching children how to use a gun with one. I know how one works, don't mistake me for some idiot who really did just make shit up, but I don't want things to just revolve around the guns in my story so I made it up.**

**But admit it, I was pretty good, right, right??? . *looks away***

**ANYWAYS, I GOT LITERALLY NO RESPONSE TO THE POLL. SERIOUSLY, ONLY ONE PERSON VOTED. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ALL ARE?! No, jk, jk. Please, go vote if you want a say in how this story will end, I really want to hear from you all!**

**Remember, you're voting to say if this should be a KanddaxLavi (Kandi), KandaxAllen (Yullen), or just keep them straight.**

**Oh, also! In this story, ALLEN DOESN'T HAVE HIS DEFORMED HAND. Trust me, if he did it would mess up the whole storyline. Sorry for not giving the head up earlier…**

**Well, time to wrap up this Author's note.**

**Anyways review, vote, and stay strong.**

**-Xenophili**


	4. So We Meet Again

_**I know I never made this clear, but this story isn't in America, thus the cars they drive in are backwards. The passenger rides on the left, and the driver drives on the right. Also they drive on the left side of the road. Sorry, once again, for not saying so sooner.**_

**Tuesday, November 29****th****, XXXX**

**1700 hours (5:00 P.M)**

Because of Daylight savings and the changing of seasons the days were growing shorter, and the nights longer. Even though it was only five in the afternoon it would be dark in an hour. The sun was already halfway down in the sky, projecting an orange-red glow from the horizon. It grew colder at night, for there was no more sun to spread its warmth out.

Lavi pulled his coat closer to his body, shivering at the sudden drop in temperature from just a couple hours ago.

"Mind explaining why we couldn't have just waited in the car again??" he asked, annoyed at his partner.

They had parked it one block away from the Marley warehouse and walked the rest of the way.

Kanda wasn't minding the cold at all and had his coat unbuttoned. He was leaning against a building in an alleyway where they were currently, eyes closed, arms folded, trying to concentrate on something before Lavi's voice knocked him out of his musings.

"Do you really think he would show up if a suspicious black car was parked in front of the warehouse?" Kanda directed his irritated tone at Lavi without even opening his eyes.

"We've been waiting here for HOURS! Do you even know he's going to show up?!" Lavi waved his hands around animatedly as if to intensify the meaning of his words.

"No with you yelling like that," Kanda said, finally opening his eyes and looking in his partner's direction. They were narrowed, shooting a warning to Lavi for him to keep quiet. He did, settling himself against the building opposite Kanda in the alleyway looking in the way of the warehouse, still not completely satisfied with the answer he got.

Half an hour passed in silence. Kanda was quietly meditating and Lavi was rubbing his arms to keep warm. The sun had gone down even further in the sky, making it turn to shades between light purple and midnight blue. There was less and less light with each passing minute, and Lavi's patience was actually growing thin, however possible that was. He had the most patience in the world, but he couldn't stand the cold.

"Yuuuuuu, can we go now? It's freeziiiing!!" he whined to Kanda.

"Idiot, I'll crush you!" Kanda said in a dangerous tone. Lavi never seemed aware of the danger in calling Kanda by his first name and frankly he didn't seem to care.

Lavi was about to retaliate in whining more when Kanda rushed over to him and put a hand over his mouth.

"Shh," was all he said, looking in the direction of the warehouse.

"He's here."

**Tuesday, November 29****th****, XXXX**

**1735 hours (5:35 P.M)**

Allen was standing a good distance away from the warehouse. He knew he should have come sooner. Finding the small item that he came to retrieve would be impossible to do in the dark, and it was almost night time. He did have a flashlight with him, however the batteries were almost dead and it never had a bright light in the first place. It's not like he had any money to buy a new flashlight or batteries.

Not wanting to waste any more time than he already had, Allen made his way to the entrance of the warehouse, hoodie pulled up over his head to shield his ears from the cold and to make sure no one saw his face if they were around.

The police had already cleared out earlier in the day, and only the 'do not cross – police line' yellow tape was left, wrapped around the perimeter of the building. Allen ducked under it and slipped inside a door that stood slightly ajar.

Now inside he walked over to the light switch he already knew how to locate and tried to turn it on. When he flicked the switch up the lights didn't come on. He figured the police would have shut the power off to the warehouse, and thus the reason for the flashlight. He reached into his hoodie pocket and took it out. Turning it on, its dim light spread out through the room to its limit. There really wasn't much light being produced from it, so Allen hurried to one of the stairs and climbed up to the second floor of the building, not wanting to waste the precious time he had with it.

The metal door that had been knocked down was no longer on the floor. Someone had picked it up and leaned it against the wall inside the room, so Allen walked in easily through the doorway and started shining the flashlight onto the floor, searching for his lost item.

He dreaded stepping back into this room, but controlled his disdain in order to just get in, find the item, and get out.

It wasn't like this was an easy task, however. The floor was filthy, and made it hard to find any small object on it.

It looked like he was walking around in circles as he searched the floor, which, in fact, he was. He didn't want to miss a single spot as to where the item might have fallen. He decided to get on his knees so that his face was closer to the ground.

As the seconds went by he started to become impatient and anxious, his mind troubled that he wouldn't actually be able to find it after all.

"_I swear to god if you lose this I will haunt you until you die," _The words echoed through his skull as he remembered them. A chill went down his spine as a mental picture of the person who said those words to him went through his head. Along with that mental picture came a wave of emotion, anger, rage, and sadness that Allen tried to desperately shake away. He had to focus on the task at hand.

Giving up on searching in that one spot anymore he stood up and went to walk to another when his flashlight dimmed, flickered, and went out. The room was deprived of the little light it had and Allen found it hard to see with his eyes so used to the light.

"_Perfect_ timing," he mumbled to himself as he began hitting the flash light with the palm of his hand. For the first few hits it blinked on but then quickly went out, and after a while it didn't come on at all.

"Are you serious?" Allen growled at the flashlight. Frowning in frustration he started hitting it even harder, but it didn't work. Giving up on the flashlight he shoved it back into his hoodie pocket and was thinking about just searching the floor with his hands when a voice came from behind him.

"Looking for something?"

Allen froze where he stood. He recognized that deep voice. It was that detective from the day before. He didn't think he would actually come back.

_Shit._

Not even bothering to look back at the man he made a quick dash for the other door of the room when another voice came from that entrance.

"Whoa, where do you think you're going?" Came the words teasingly. He couldn't see the man's face, but he knew who it was. Stopping dead in his tracks he realized that there was no way out, and cursed himself for not being more careful.

Taking a few steps backward to distance himself from the man he was now facing he heard a gun cock behind him. Knowing the other man had taken his weapon out Allen did the same. Reaching into his sweatpants pocket he pulled out a Jericho 941 pistol, and as quickly as he could he turned around, cocked it, pointed it in the other man's direction and fired. The man cursed, showing that he wasn't dead but still must have been hit, and Allen guessed that the man had lifted up his own gun to shoot back when the person behind Allen shot first.

He had aimed his gun at the back of Allen's head without knowing, but the bullet missed and instead hit his hand and knocked his gun out of it. It fell to the ground and slid across the floor, completely out of Allen's reach.

Not cursing like the other man did, Allen just bit down on his tongue and held his hand in the other. This was when the man he shot at turned his flashlight on and pointed it right at Allen's face making him squint from the brightness of it. The other man followed in suit and they both closed in on him in the middle of the room. Completely defenseless, Allen could do nothing but stand there and glare at the man he was facing.

"Little brat," the detective seemed less than pleased as he hissed at the boy standing in front of him. He had yet to put his gun away and was holding it securely in his left hand.

"Lavi, get that kid's gun," he ordered his partner. As the man directed to moved to retrieve the gun his flashlight's light ran across the detective's face and Allen saw a trail of blood moving down his right cheek.

_The bullet must have just grazed him then, _he thought as he stared at the man's face.

The detective's pissed off expression turned into a wry smirk as he finally disarmed his gun and put it away. He reached into one of his pockets and pulled something out of it. It seemed like a small item but Allen couldn't make out what it was. The detective shone his flashlight on it and it took a few seconds to register into Allen's mind just what he was holding.

It was a ring. A light blue rose sat in the middle of two slanted and somewhat overlapping half-circles that rested on top of two silver double-loops coated with tiny diamond stubbles.

"My ring!" Allen gasped as he identified the object the detective was now holding. He made a move to walk forward and take it, but thought better of it, remembering the person behind him still had a gun out.

"You know, I found this little thing a few days ago, but I haven't the slightest idea who it might belong to," Kanda said in mock bewilderment as he played with the ring in his hand. "And it's such a nice ring, too."

It had then just occurred to Allen how he had really gotten possession of it.

"You, you took that from me when you pinned me against the wall two days ago! When you were holding my hands behind my back, you must have slipped it off my finger!" Allen said, voice now filling with rage with every word he spoke.

"Did I? It's strange how I don't seem to remember such an important event as that ever happening," Kanda frowned in confusion, eyes now on the person in front of him.

"But, I suppose if it's yours, then I really must give it back to you, don't I?" Kanda sighed in resignation. He reached his hand out to the kid with the ring sitting in the palm of his hand. For a second, Allen had actually believed he was going to give it back, and reached out for it with his right hand. But at the last second Kanda quickly wrapped his fingers around the ring and retracted his arm. Allen, knowing it was too good to be true, let his arm fall back to his side as Kanda went on to say "but, as long as I have it, I should trade you for something, right?"

"If you're asking for money from me then you've got a better chance at finding another one of those rings," Allen stated in a monotonous tone as he glared daggers into the man's face.

"Oh? Is it a one of a kind?" Kanda asked as he started playing with the ring again.

"It is," Allen practically growled. He hated giving out information of any sort, but the man standing in front of him was really starting to pull at some threads and he wasn't paying attention to what he was saying.

"What I want, for this ring, _Allen Walker_, is information," he said it as clear as sunshine, however Allen still had some trouble comprehending as to why someone like him would trade such a ring for just information.

"On what?" Allen asked, now very skeptical and wary of the detective.

"On how you got that scar."

Allen stiffened at the statement, and all of a sudden he became fully aware of the presence of the man standing behind him.

Kanda frowned at the response he got, and pocketed the ring.

"Ah, hey! Give that back!" Allen reacted to the man's action and stepped forward, holding his right hand out.

"Only when I get my information," Kanda stated and walked up to the kid so that he was practically towering over him. He bent down so that he and Allen were face to face, but they were way too close for Allen's comfort and he took half a step back.

"What?" he questioned the man's actions as a light blush crept up to his cheeks, for reasons beyond his understanding, as he had only then realized how striking the Asian man's features were.

"Blood-shot eyes, your breath smells of alcohol…We got ourselves a little druggie," Kanda smirked as he straightened back up. "How old are you anyways? Thirteen? "

"I'm seventeen!" Allen barked, annoyed at the put-down the man just shot at him.

"Really? You're pretty short for somebody so old," Kanda continued. "And what's with this white hair?" He put a hand on Allen's head and started ruffling it, "Some new rebel look?" he teased. Allen swatted his hand away.

"It's not like I bleached my hair!" he yelled, "This is just how it is!"Allen was now irritated and had half a mind to punch the detective in his face when Lavi spoke up behind him.

"Jeez, can you guys stop bickering like little children? I guess I have to be the adult here then and break up the fight. Really Yuu, I expected better from you," he said in an egotistical tone while pretending to chastise Kanda.

Kanda looked over in Lavi's direction and shot him a death glare while speaking the words, "I'll deal with you later," through gritted teeth.

Lavi shrank back into the shadow of the room, knowing he had stepped over some invisible boundary line.

"Anyways," Kanda said, redirecting his attention to the kid in front of him once again, "if you're not going to give us any information here, then I guess we'll just have to bring you down to the station with us."

The statement fazed Allen a little, but he didn't let it show. "If you bring me down there I'll be dead within the hour."

Surprised by the statement Kanda narrowed his eyes just the tiniest amount and asked, "Why do you say that?"

Allen sneered at Kanda, almost in disbelief, that he didn't know what he meant. "Are you kidding? You of all people should know. The mafia, they're everywhere. In schools they're teachers, in government they're politicians, even presidents. And they're definitely in the police. They could be the very partner you work with," Allen glanced to the person behind him and Lavi looked back at him in utter confusion. "If you take me to that police station I'll definitely be killed."

"And I want to know why," Kanda told him.

Now confidence struck his voice and Allen laughed when he said "You don't work for that police station, do you?"

Kanda didn't even seem affected by the statement and all he asked was "How did you know?"

"Hey, we're not supposed to give out information like that!" Lavi said, now stepping back into the light.

"It's not like I'm saying something he doesn't already know," Kanda said blandly.

"Why else would you have asked me how I got this scar? You must work for INTERPOL, right?" Allen felt like he had just won the battle.

"Smart kid," Kanda complimented.

"You don't have to be a genius to figure it out," Allen retorted.

"No, but you would have to be involved, and you just proved it big time," Kanda sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand. "Well, it's not like I was going to take you down there anyways."

"What?" Allen asked, not understanding what Kanda meant.

"Do you really think I could just waltz in there with you in handcuffs? To them, you have nothing to do with anything and it would look bad on me, especially with the Chief dead now."

"So he was a part of it too, huh. No wonder he was killed. The mafia was targeting him for a long time, you know," Allen gave a wry smirk, but he felt it falter. He was getting weak. He had completely forgotten he had been shot in the hand, however possible that was, and now the blood was slowly seeping out from the wound. He pulled down the sleeve of his left arm and wrapped it around his hand to stop it from bleeding.

"I guessed as much," Kanda pondered, hand on his chin, staring at the ground. He hadn't noticed the kids' condition.

He picked his head back up after a few second to speak to Allen again, "For the time being you'll be staying at one of our houses."

At Allen's shocked face Kanda guessed what he was thinking, smiled back, and said "because we have the right to, because you're a minor, and because you really can't do anything against us. That's why we can do this."

"That's not fair!" Allen shouted childishly as Kanda moved over to him and grabbed onto his right arm.

Of course it is," Kanda said, pulling the kid to the flight of stairs closest, Lavi following behind. "It's fair for us."

**Somehow, the chapters get shorter with each one to go by. I was going to continue it, but with the next scene coming up, it would have extended this chapter much longer than I want for them to be.**

**Anyways, it's official, this will be a YULLEN.**

**Personally I'm a fan as well. **

**I don't really have much more to say so until next time,**

**Read, review, and stay strong.**

**-Xenophili**


	5. Hospitality

_**I know, I was an idiot last chapter and I forgot to say this, but if you want to see how the ring looks because I'm so bad at descriptions, then copy and paste the link at the end of this sentence into your address bar and go see it.**_** .com/UserFiles/Image/ring_view_**

**Tuesday, November 29****th****, XXXX**

**2000 hours (8:00 P.M)**

How did he get into this position? He had been forcefully pushed to the ground by someone, and they were now standing over him. He felt weight around his hips. The man was now sitting on him and pressing their knees to the sides of his body. In unfamiliar surroundings he didn't know if there was a possible way to escape. The person weighing him down now started to unzip his jacket. He fought back, hands pushing the man away. The man grabbed both his hands into one and held them up above his head, continuing on with his business. Too weak to protest, he just laid there and allowed himself to be stripped of his clothes.

**Tuesday, November 29****th****, XXXX**

**1800 hours (6:00 P.M)**

"Hurry up, get in the car!" a man yelled over the sound of firing bullets. Without a second thought, the two people he was with didn't spare a second as one of them opened the car door closest and shoved the other inside. He dove in after him and closed the door behind himself. The third man ran to the driver's seat and yanked the door open. He had his keys in the ignition before he was even fully in the car.

Bullets were hitting the black Lincoln from the direction they had just came running from, but they were speeding down the street no more than a second later and the bullets subsided after a moment.

Everyone in the car remained silent, now trying to catch their breath and figure out what just happened.

"Wha…Who the hell were they!?" the first one to speak up was the rookie detective, still breathing roughly from all-out sprinting down the way from the warehouse to where their car had been parked.

"The mafia, stupid. I've explained it already. They're after me," the person next to him now spoke, having regained his breathing already.

"Mind explaining why you're so damn important to them?" the driver had almost said it like it wasn't even a question, but an order. He was irritated, and didn't even bother hiding it.

The moment the three of them had stepped out of the warehouse they were being shot at by men in black suits and sunglasses that had surrounded the building. The two detectives took their guns out and shot some in the legs, making an opening in the direction of their car and ran that way, all the while the men following behind, shooting at them. Somehow none of them had gotten hurt.

"Yes, actually," Allen grumbled in response to Kanda's question. He had been reluctantly made to come with them. It was better than being killed, he reasoned in his mind.

"Damn kid."

Kanda was driving like a mad man again, making sharp turns and driving down unfamiliar streets. He was trying to make sure they weren't being followed. Allen and Lavi were sitting in the back seat holding on to the doors and pressing themselves hard down into their seats to try and stay in one place. They hadn't had enough time to put on seatbelts.

After thirty minutes of driving around in circles Kanda headed back to the police station. Parking in the garage and turning off the car they all just sat there for a while, calming down once again and running the events of the night through their heads.

"I wonder how they knew we were there," Lavi said to no one in particular.

"They were probably there the whole time, having somebody watch the building just in case the kid came back, because going by what he said, they had locked him up in there and seeing as there was no report of us ever finding a child they figured he must have escaped. And obviously he's really _precious_ to them," Kanda explained.

"Stop talking about me like I'm some type of object!" Allen complained. Kanda ignored him and took his keys out of the ignition and opened his car door. Lavi did the same, stepping out and closing his door. Allen just sat there for a second, before his door opened and Kanda dragged him out.

"Hey watch it!" Allen yelled at him as he was pulled out by the arm none too gently.

"He'll be staying at my house for a while and seeing how things go I'll switch him over to you if I have no luck getting information out of him," Kanda was addressing Lavi who had walked up to them. He nodded his agreement.

"It shouldn't be a problem for me though, this kid seems pretty easy," Kanda smirked.

"All right, just don't kill him, okay? Your methods can be brutal!" Lavi teased.

"I'm right here you know!" Allen said, struggling against the firm grasp Kanda had on his arm. He was surprisingly strong.

They went on ignoring him. Lavi said he was just going to go home and rest and waved his good-bye to Kanda. After he disappeared back into the police station Kanda stole a quick glance at Allen before pulling him down the parking garage.

"Hey, wait! Where are going?" Allen questioned as they continued moving.

"I've already told you, my house, idiot," Kanda said as he stopped in front of a flat black Lotus.

Allen couldn't help but be amazed by it. It was in absolute perfect condition, something he hadn't expected after seeing Kanda's driving skills. He had imagined something like the car next to it, which was a beaten up blue Kia minivan. For a moment he thought he_ had_ made a mistake and really thought the minivan was Kanda's car, until he took out his keys and unlocked the doors to the lotus by pushing a button. He threw Allen into the passenger seat and closed the door behind him, locking it.

The car smelled of new leather, and the interior was clean and very modern-looking. It gave off the feeling that whoever owned this car had a lot of money to burn, which Kanda probably did.

Kanda moved into the driver's seat and was back on the street in no time, swerving in and out of traffic.

It was completely silent in the car, not even the radio was on. Allen was looking out the window, ignoring Kanda, and Kanda doing the same, keeping his eyes on the cars around him. It was an unsettling atmosphere but Allen would rather deal with it than have a conversation with the person who was holding him captive.

They had reached his house after just ten minutes of driving. It sat in what looked like a very friendly neighborhood. Kanda pulled up to his house and turned the car off. Allen took this time to study the house.

It was one of the more recently built two-story houses. It was all white and had large windows all around the house. The front lawn was of average size, and the grass was very neatly trimmed. There was a walkway connecting from the driveway up to the front door of the house that cut the front lawn evenly in two. A small island of grass sat between the driveway and the road that had nothing on it, but on both sides of the lawn were two small birdbaths. It seemed as though this house was made to be symmetrical because everything about it was made to be to perfection.

Kanda unlocked Allen's door and once again dragged him out of the car. Allen didn't say anything this time and he was led up the pathway to the house.

Kanda unlocked the front door and pushed Allen through it. He stepped inside behind him and locked the front door from inside. It was one of those double-lock doors that had to have a key on the inside in order to get out.

The house opened into a hallway that forked left and right at the end. There was also a flight of stairs leading up to the second story in the middle.

Kanda move down the hallway and turned left. Noticing he had taken off his shoes Allen followed in suit, taking off his boots and leaving them on a brown mat that camouflaged almost perfectly with the wooden floor by the front door. He didn't want to start making any trouble when he just got there, and followed Kanda down the way he just went.

The end of the hallway was connected to a living room. The floorboards ended and a bleach white carpet began there and spread throughout the whole room. It was a very simple space. Two black leather couches were positioned in an L shape in the middle of the room in front of a fireplace. Above the fireplace was a 52 inch flat screen T.V mounted onto the wall.

_Rich bastard._

The living room was connected to the kitchen, which was separated by a long bar table with a black marble top. There were three bar stools sitting in front of it and Allen made his way to the one on the end and sat there. He hadn't seen where Kanda had gone off to and decided to just wait until he came back. There was no use trying to escape. He couldn't leave without getting his ring back.

Kanda resurfaced from a hallway that branched from the end of the kitchen and living room. In his hand was a first aid kit. He walked over to Allen and sat it down on the top of the bar. He was confused as to why Kanda had taken something like that out until he started talking to Allen.

"Show me your hand." Surprised by the sudden demand Allen just sat there and stared at him. He noticed that the wound on Kanda's right cheek had been cleaned up and bandaged.

Having little patience, Kanda grabbed Allen's left arm and started to unravel the bloody sleeve from his hand.

"I know you were shot, I just don't know why you haven't said anything about it yet."

Allen jerked his hand away, not wanting for his arm to be revealed.

Kanda, not expecting it, frowned at Allen and said "what?"

"I'm fine," Allen mumbled, turning his head away. He made a move to get up from the stool when Kanda pushed him back down.

"Like hell you are," Kanda threatened him. He tried again to roll up the sleeve when Allen pushed back, with more force than last time. He was able to move from the stool and started making his way back to the front door when Kanda grabbed him by the hood of his jacket from behind and pulled him to the floor. His head connected with the ground and he closed his eyes in pain for but a few seconds. It only took that much time for Kanda to grab the first aid kit from off the bar and move over to Allen once again.

Before he could even open his eyes Kanda immobilized Allen by sitting on top of him. He was straddling Allen's hips with his knees, pressing hard against him so as to minimize his movements. Allen's eyes shot open at the pressure around his mid section just in time to see Kanda unzipping his jacket. Trying to resist as much as possible, Allen tried to push him off and away with both his hands, but he practically had no energy left so when Kanda pulled his hands away and moved them to above Allen's head he could do nothing else.

His jacket was unzipped and opened in seconds, revealing Allen's bare chest. He wasn't wearing a shirt underneath his jacket. The only clothes he had were the ones he was wearing right then and there. Kanda just sat there staring at the exposed body now.

Allen was more than just anorexic, more than just starved. Kanda could go just about as far as to say he was literally skin and bones. His ribs were visible under his skin pulled tightly across his chest and it looked like his stomach had been sucked in to itself. How this kid was even alive now was beyond Kanda.

Seeing Kanda's surprised expression he picked up his head and looked down at his own body and saw what was so amazing to him. He put his head back down on the carpet and said "I was caught about a week ago. They didn't exactly treat me the best," he said in a quiet tone.

Kanda didn't respond, and instead took off Allen's jacket completely and threw it to the side, revealing his arms, the last thing Allen wanted Kanda to see.

"And you expect me to believe they found you yesterday and cut your wrists too, huh?" Kanda said, looking up at his arms still held above his head. There were deep cuts running horizontally across both arms. They were crusted with blood and still looked fresh.

"You a masochist?"

Allen just looked away, no bothering to answer and just ask "Why do you care anyways?"

Kanda brought down Allen's left arm and flipped it over so he could see where the bullet had entered his hand.

"Because I don't need you keeling over and dying when you're the only lead I got," Kanda said while grabbing a sterile white pad and peroxide to clean the wound.

"Why, thank you for making me feel important," Allen said sarcastically. "And can you get _off _me?"

"No," Kanda answered simply.

"Why not?" Allen asked irritated. He pushed himself up on his right elbow into an almost sitting position.

"Because I don't need you trying to run off again," Kanda answered simply. He grabbed a pair of tweezers from the first aid kit to take the bullet out of Allen's hand.

"Trust me, I won't," Allen said. Kanda started extracting the bullet before he responded.

"I _can't_ trust you, that's _why _I'm not moving," and he began to pull at the bullet.

"Agh! That fuckin' 'urts!" Allen had unwillingly said in his accent, jerking his hand out of Kanda's. Kanda grabbed onto it again and brought the tweezers back to the bullet.

"What, you British or something? The hell's with that accent?" Kanda questioned as he started pulling the bullet out even more.

Allen found himself not able to answer and instead strung out a colorful line of curse words, clenching his right hand tightly into a fist, until the bullet was completely extracted.

"Good, it's all in one piece," Kanda said, examining the bullet. He placed it down along with the tweezers and picked up a cotton ball and sterile pad to press to the wound to stop it from bleeding.

"Hold this here," Kanda directed Allen to hold the cotton in place. He changed his position on Allen so he could completely sit up but never actually got off of him.

He reached back into the first aid kit and pulled out a roll of bandages. He wrapped it thickly around Allen's hand, holding the cotton down, and cut it at the end. Satisfied with his job he packed up the kit and walked back down the hallway he came and turned left into a room.

Allen just sat there, not knowing what to do when he realized just then that Kanda hadn't been wearing his jacket. He remembered that that was where the ring was.

_But he was wearing it when he came in the house. Where would it be?_

Allen stood up and wrapped his arms around himself. It was actually really cold inside. He hadn't noticed it before because he had his jacket on, and even when Kanda had taken it off their body contact had transferred heat between the two.

_He was really warm, _Allen found himself thinking. He was staring in the direction Kanda had walked off in.

_Ah, what the hell am I thinking?! _He turned his head away from the hallway and instead decided to stare at the black leather couch next to him. It had suddenly become very interesting.

_What's that kid doing?_

Kanda was standing at the end of the hallway looking at Allen. The kid was hugging himself, staring at some unknown spot on Kanda's couch and-

_Is he blushing? _

Shaking it off as he just might be cold Kanda walked towards him.

"Oi," he said to bring Allen's attention to him. Allen snapped his head up, shocked by the voice right in front of him. Kanda threw a white bath towel and suit of clothes at him and Allen caught them in his arms.

"Go take a shower, change, and throw those other clothes away. You won't be wearing them ever again."

Allen just stared blankly at him, as if not knowing what to do next.

"Down the hall, first door on the right," Kanda said, and walked into the kitchen.

Allen stared after him for a few seconds before finally picking up the discarded hoodie, walking to the designated door, and stepping inside.

The bathroom was abnormally large. It had two metal oval-shaped sinks (embedded)on a long black marble counter. The faucets were silver in color and shaped like bamboo. A porcelain toilet bowl sat next to it and on the opposite side was a walk-in glass shower that stretched across half the wall.

_You could fit a whole family in there! _Allen stood there gawking at the bathroom. It was unnecessarily huge for just one person living in the entire house.

For a moment he thought of completely destroying the bathroom and vandalizing the rest of the house in his search for his ring and in finding it crash through one of the windows and make a run for it, but the fact that there was close to no chance of that actually working decided to just _try_ to behave and see what happens. Once again, he was being held prisoner, and for the same damn reason.

**Tuesday, November 29****th****, XXXX**

**2040 hours (8:40 P.M)**

Kanda had decided on having Allen shower to give him some free time to make something to eat without having to constantly look over his back to make sure Allen wasn't trying to make a run for it. Kanda really needed for him to cooperate and spill some information, and to do that he was trying to build Allen's trust in him by pretending to be nice.

It was the 'good cop bad cop' routine. He was going to first try and reason with Allen and see if he'll tell willingly or perhaps make a trade-off of some sort. Of course, if those happen to fail, a little torture might help. Perhaps if he were to relive being locked-up again might loosen his mouth to some degree.

Kanda actually smiled at this. It was not like he was sadistic and wallowed in the pleasure of other peoples' pain. He just enjoyed having the privilege of doing whatever it took to get what he wanted.

Taking his mind off the rather disturbing subject he turned his attention back to the food he was cooking.

At that moment the bathroom door opened. Allen walked out to the kitchen, but not actually stepping inside its boundaries. The house was still freezing and the white tile floor of the kitchen was unwelcoming seeing as Allen wore nothing on his feet. He decided to stay on the carpeted section of the house. In his arms he carried the clothes he was wearing previously. Tattered and bloody, Allen realized it really was time to throw them away, but for what he was given to wear made him almost put his old clothes back on.

Kanda had handed Allen a long-sleeved white shirt that was three sizes too big. The collar kept on slipping off and over one of Allen's shoulders, exposing his skin like it was doing now. The sleeves hung over his hands by a good five inches. The long black sleeping pants he had reached passed his feet and to the floor, forming small puddles as it layered in on itself, and the waist was so big that Allen had to keep one hand on it at all times otherwise they would join the rest of the pants as a pond at his feet.

Allen stood there glaring at Kanda's back. He was standing at the island in the middle of the kitchen looking over some pots and pans sitting on the stove he was cooking in. The sleeves of his black button-up shirt were neatly folded to his elbows so as not to get any food on them. Allen couldn't lie though; the smell coming from the food he was cooking was heavenly.

To catch Kanda's attention without saying anything Allen cleared his throat.

"The garbage is over there to throw your old clothes away," Kanda said, pointing a spatula to the far corner of the kitchen where a small metal bin stood about three feet tall.

Bracing himself for the iciness of the floor Allen walked across the kitchen and dumped the heap of clothes into the garbage. The items in his pockets had already been taken out and Allen left them in the bathroom on the counter.

He turned around just in time to see Kanda put his head down to face the counter top and he heard just a barely audible snigger.

"What?" Allen asked him, now quite irked.

"You look ridiculous," Kanda answered not looking back up. He turned the stove off and moved the pot and pan off the heated surface.

"You're the one who gave me these clothes!" Allen retorted indignantly, putting an unseen hand to his chest to gesture to himself, the sleeve flopping around lazily.

"Don't blame me, you're the tiny one here. Those are the smallest clothes I own," Kanda said as he walked to the counter Allen was standing next to to bring down two bowls and plates. He stole a quick glance at Allen in which they made eye contact for a quick second. Allen could see that he was still being mocked.

"I'm not that small!" he yelled back, following Kanda to the island and stood on the opposite side of where he was standing. He slammed his hands down on the marble counter for emphasis. His cheeks and tip of his nose were now powdered a light pink from the cold and from yelling. The blood was rushing to his face.

"Whatever you say," Kanda's smirk grew even more evident.

Before Allen could say anything else Kanda shoved a bowl and plate in front of him, both brimming with food. He couldn't name the dishes, but he knew it was Japanese cuisine just from the style of it. He didn't know what to do but just stare at the food. He couldn't even remember the last time he's eaten something, and he could feel the drool forming at the corner of his mouth.

_Bingo._

At that moment Kanda knew he had won. There was no way that kid could resist the urges of his stomach. He was practically devouring the food with his eyes.

"It's Shumai Dumplings and Kabocha Pumpkin Soup," Kanda said, still watching amusedly as Allen's hand twitch and stopped itself from grabbing something from off the plate when he heard Kanda's voice.

As if the name wasn't a dead giveaway, the Kabocha pumpkin soup was pumpkin colored. It had a milky texture to it, and the steam rolling of the surface carried the foods smell along with it and blew right up Allen's nose. It mixed with the scent of the artistically wrapped Shumai Dumplings. Stuffed with ground Pork and chopped onions and seasoned with pepper and ginger, they were almost irresistible, and Allen tried his hardest from eating everything in sight.

"You can eat it if you want," Kanda said in a falsely bored tone.

Allen looked up to Kanda, completely stricken by his words. Kanda was holding out a pair of black plastic chopsticks and a metal soup spoon to Allen, but not looking at him. He had his left elbow resting on the surface of the counter, head propped up in his left hand and he was looking to something Allen didn't bother to follow along with his eyes.

It looked like Allen was about to have a heart attack and reached for the eating utensils when Kanda spoke again.

"But, you have to trade me something."

_Why do I always know things are never going to go as easy as I hope._

Allen waited for Kanda to continue, hand still outstretched.

Kanda's eyes looked over to Allen without him actually moving his head, and he smiled when he said "You have to give me some type of information about the mafia."

Allen eyed him warily and asked "How much?"

_Too easy_, Kanda thought to himself. The moment Allen had said that line he knew he was going to get something out of him, and that was good enough for now.

"Any amount, you choose," Kanda shrugged and straightened up. He held out his hand out even further to Allen's outstretched one and signaled him to take them.

Not hesitating to take them a second time, Allen snatched the chopsticks and spoon from Kanda's hand and began inhaling the food previously placed in front of him with a quick word of 'Itadakimasu'*under his breath. He didn't care if it was still scorching hot and burned his tongue and throat. In fact, he barely tasted much of the meal during his feeding frenzy. All that mattered at the moment was that he finally had real food.

Kanda just stood there looking pleased at his cunning wits. He took his own set of food and sat at the bar table silently eating his own food and thinking about his victory.

_This is going to be so easy._

***Itadakimasu, however you spell it in the English language, means 'time to eat' or 'thank you for the food' in Japanese. It's a way of saying thanks to the person providing you with the food. Allen said it because he's eating Japanese cuisine and it's just customary to say it and show that you have manners. Anyways, in Japan it's very important to say this at meal times with a group of people such as family.**

**Now, on to the real A/N. I know I have really only just started this story, but it's been up for quite a while. I have not gotten much of a response to it except for those few people who have reviewed, and it is because of them that I shall continue writing this story. Because I honestly don't care how many people read my story, just as long as there's at least one other person who read it and likes it I shall continue writing it just for that one person.**

**Anyways, thank you **_**Hikari Ice Angel, Taboo, whisperypath, Broken Flavors, Mistress -Freak, Helen Raspberrih**_**, and **_**Kayday **_**for your support and I will try my hardest and see to it that you are not let down with this story! I really appreciate that you took the time out of your day to not only read my story but also review to it, and that sends me no end of joy.**

**Read, Review, and stay strong.**

**-Xenophili**


	6. Unanswered Answers

**Tuesday, November 29th, XXXX**

**2100 hours (9:00 P.M)**

It was dim and silent, a strained and suffocating air hung about. Both of them stood there in the kitchen, staring at each other, one in disbelief and another in a calm and neutral way. The latter was waiting for a reaction from the taller man after hearing the information that had just been shared. After a few more threatening minutes, he finally spoke.

"What...did you say?"

Allen just rolled his eyes. "Do I have to repeat myself?" he asked. After no answer from Kanda he continued. "Fine. I said: The weapons from the warehouse were being stored for a manhunt that was going to begin later this week. But before they could get them to this city's Branch Mafia a traitor tipped the police off and then disappeared. The police confiscated the weapons and the manhunt is currently postponed, but they won't stop until they get their man."

"No, I mean what you said after that, who are they targeting?" Kanda said, shaking his head and coming out of his stupor. Allen smiled here, almost darkly.

"You mean the undercover INTERPOL agent? He's currently residing somewhere in this city, not yet having been located by the mafia. He's in charge of the big-time case to take down the leader of Noah's Mafia," Allen smiled even wider now, "I hear he's this young Japanese big-shot." The smile disappeared now, and Allen shrugged and looked away to the direction of the bathroom. Didn't catch his name though."

Allen was messing with Kanda, and Kanda knew it.

"Damn it kid, don't mess with me! I know you who it is!"

"And I know_ you _know who it is," came Allen's calm reply. He looked back at Kanda, "Right?"

This surprised him for a few seconds, but then Kanda's expression darkened. "They're after me, aren't they?

"Bingo."

A few more seconds of silence, and then "Damn it," Kanda cursed, running a hand through his bangs.

"So? Why are you telling me this? Why are you helping me all of a sudden? Aren't you with them?" Kanda questioned Allen on his suspicious actions. Allen sighed, not affected by Kanda's threatening voice.

"Well, I'm stuck with you now, aren't I? Might as well make the best of the situation and try to stay alive, and what better way to do that then have you be well-informed of the situation." Allen smirked just slightly, "And I'm not with them, not now, not ever."

Finally, Kanda had the chance to ask the question that had been gnawing at the back of his mind since they first met. "Then why do you have their symbol engraved onto your face? That pentagon," Kanda pointed at Allen's face, "You can't get something like that from just anywhere, you know."

Allen hesitated, breathing in and holding his breath for a few seconds, staring wide-eyed at Kanda. Then he let out a sigh and closed his eyes, tilting his head down and rubbing his eyelids with his right hand, he answered Kanda. "That story, is for another time," he said weakly.

"What-"

"Another time," Allen said picking his head back up and staring fiercely at Kanda. "Trust me, if I told you now, it would only complicate this situation to an unbearable level, and that's the last thing you want right now. It's just too much for one night already."

Kanda could see Allen was tired, the bags under his eyes were well defined and he seemed drained of energy. He couldn't do much more for the night, so he decided to just let it rest until morning.

"Fine," he mumbled, and walked to a door that stood next to the bathroom.

"Here," he said to Allen, and Allen walked over to where Kanda was. Kanda opened the door to a spacious bedroom.

The king-sized bed in the middle of the room had its head resting against the left wall and was covered in a black comforter. The window on the wall facing them at the far end of the room had black silky curtains covering it. An enormous walk-in closet was in the farthest corner on the right wall, but all-in-all it was actually a very simple room.

"This is where you will be sleeping for the night," Kanda said. "I'll be locking you in."

Allen almost laughed. "Still don't trust me?"

"I'll never trust you," Kanda said simply and moved away back to the kitchen to clean up from dinner.

Allen walked away from the door of the room and back into the bathroom where he had left some things from his pockets.

He turned on the light and saw that everything was still there. Feeling relieved for no reason, he walked over to the counter and began picking the things up.

There was a specially carved lighter empty of gas with special engravings, a strange and small black box, and two cigarettes.

Grimacing at the sight of them but wanting them all the same, he picked up the two cigarettes and hid them on the elastic lining of his boxers. He picked up the other two items and turned around to walk out of the bathroom to see Kanda standing in the entrance of it, arms crossed and looking pissed, but using a blank expression all the while.

Startled, Allen stepped back and tripped on the end of his large pants and fell down to the floor, the two things he held in his hand flew out of them and went soaring though the air right at Kanda, who caught both items in one hand. He looked at them for a second and then back to Allen who was busying himself with trying to stand up and fix his pants at the same time.

Kanda put the two items in his pockets and held out his now empty hand to Allen and ordered "Give them to me."

Allen, who was already angry, just got even angrier at Kanda's tone of voice. "Give you what? You just took what I had!"

"The cigarettes," Kanda stated warningly. "Now."

"Damn it!" Allen yelled while reaching to the side of his pants again. "Can't I have anything?!" He slammed the cigarettes down in Kanda 's hand and walked passed him and into the room he was going to be locked in for the night.

"Not something like this," Kanda said, looking down at the cigarettes. He would throw them away later, but for now Allen was the bigger problem.

"It'll only make life easier if I break you of your addiction now. It'll actually make life easier for me, too."

Allen was already standing by the bed and had turned back around to the doorway at the sound of Kanda's voice. He sneered at the man and told him "Just lock me in already, I want nothing more to do with you tonight," and at Allen's snide words Kanda closed the door. Allen heard it click and knew that he wasn't getting out until morning.

**Sorry, had to stop it here. Super short yes, but many new things have come to light. Please note that I had rewritten this chapter thrice because it had made absolutely no sense the times before. Anyways I just felt like updating before January came to an end. It just felt like the right thing to do. Sorry midterms and life got in the way of me updating, but that's just how it goes.**

**Anyways, **

**Read, Review, and stay strong.**

**-Xenophili**


	7. Time to Change

**Wednesday, November 30****th****, XXXX**

**500 hours (5:00 A.M)**

It is the early hours of the morning, when the sun is still rising into the sky, the early workers are waking to begin their day.

The moisture in the air had floated down to the earth and stuck to the grass pedals and rested upon the surfaces of cars and houses.

It turned colder from the day before and nearing December the permanent winter weather was starting to settle in over the city. The morning dew on the grass froze over and turned into a thin layer of ice, giving the illusion that the grass had turned white. This ice covered every place the air could touch and would soon melt when the sun shone its strong powerful rays across the sky.

It was a peaceful morning that made you want to just sleep in, relax, and enjoy staying inside, but some did not have the luxury of that option.

"Time to get up," came the rude awakening. Kanda was standing in the door way of the room Allen had been locked in for the night, clad in his signature black outfit and a fresh new band-aid on his cheek.

It was diagonally across the hall from Kanda's bedroom, which was behind the kitchen.

Allen didn't get up from the king sized bed he was laying in. The house had a draft running through it that made Allen think it could actually possibly be colder inside than it was outside, and he did not plan to leave the comfort and warmth of the bed.

"I said, get _up_," Kanda repeated himself from the doorway.

He walked further into the bedroom and stood next to the bed. He looked over Allen who was facing the other direction; face completely buried into the covers.

He sighed and walked over to the large window of the room and parted the long silky black shades. The dim light rolled into the room and ran over the bed.

Allen didn't seem affected by it so Kanda roughly pulled the covers back from his face.

"Oi," called his deep voice. He moved out of the way of the stream of light so it could hit Allen in the face. When it did he squinted and tried to pull the covers back over him but Kanda prevented him from doing so.

"I said, get your ass _up_," Kanda yelled, pulling the covers back to Allen's stomach.

"It's too fuckin' cold," Allen mumbled and rolled to the other side of the bed.

"If you don't get up by the time I'm back you really _will _be cold," threatened Kanda, and he stalked out of the room leaving the door wide open to let even more cold air in.

Allen groaned in annoyance and pulled the covers back over him. Why the hell was he getting up so early? It had to be around five in the morning because the sun's light was barely shining through the window. He wasn't planning on actually getting up and just got more comfortable in his new position on the bed. Kanda's threat didn't scare him; he was actually more concerned about eating than that man. That's when he remembered last night and the information he had given Kanda.

"_They're after me, aren't they?"_

Allen laid there in bed still. Thinking about that conversation made him sleepier somehow, and right now that was the last thing he wanted on his mind. He was starting to drift back into sleep and closed his eyes; the warmth of the covers was starting to lull him to sleep, when something disturbing enveloped him.

He was all of a sudden freezing and he couldn't breathe. The sting of what felt like liquid ice was thrown onto his head and entered his nose and mouth, making it impossible to take in air. Allen bolted up while throwing the covers of his body, gasping and choking, his hair now dripping wet.

Another wave of the chilling feeling hit him, this time it was his chest and stomach area.

"Ah!" Allen let out a high-pitched sound somewhere between a gasp and a loud whimper. The feeling was unbearable, and he was still confused as to what had just happened.

That is, until he spotted Kanda.

He was standing over Allen. He mustn't have heard him come in the room because the floor was carpeted and the padding of Kanda's feet was muffled.

Kanda was smirking evilly, in his hand he held a red bucket that was posed in his right hand as though he had just emptied its contents seconds earlier. He was holding it above Allen's head, and then Allen made the connection.

"Y-you bastard!"Allen shouted through chattering teeth. He was hugging himself while glaring at Kanda, who had just dumped a bucket full of water brimming with ice onto Allen. His soaking hair stuck to the sides of his face and forehead and his white shirt had become transparent somewhat, and the color of Allen's skin mixed with the color of the white shirt.

"There, are you cold now?" Kanda asked mockingly. He lowered the bucket to his side and was still grinning madly. Then suddenly it just disappeared and Kanda said "It's time to get up," and walked to the door where he stopped when he heard Allen lapse into a sneezing frenzy.

He turned back around to face the room and addressed Allen, "I'd change your clothes if I were you, or you'll get sick."

"Damn it, if you hadn't thrown fucking water on me then I wouldn't have to, and I don't have any clothes!" Allen raged as he moved to get out of the no longer warm and comfortable bed. It was also soaked with ice cold water.

Kanda just shrugged at Allen's statement. "Then I guess all you can do is take the shirt off, you'll get colder slower without a wet shirt on."

"I fucking hate you," Allen gritted his teeth together to stop them from clattering.

"I never said you had to like me," Kanda sighed and walked out of the room.

Allen went into another round of sneezing, covering his nose with his hands. His body was shivering violently, so he took off his shirt as best as he could. His quivering hands made such a simple task quite difficult.

He threw the completely soaked shirt onto the bed and walked to the entrance of the bedroom and peered out from the side of it.

Kanda was in the kitchen again, cooking something in a pot that was simmering on the stove. Allen couldn't smell what it was for his nose was too plugged to breathe through.

He wasn't going to stand just being in a house that was most likely below freezing wearing practically nothing. He walked over to the closet in his room and slid open the doors to see if there was anything in it. He found a single black house robe. It was obviously much bigger than him, but it was better than nothing so he slipped it on. It was surprisingly warm, and Allen buried his face into it to dry his hair. This was when he noticed an uncomfortable sensation in his left hand where the bullet wound was.

He poked his head out of the robe to check on it and rolled back the overly large sleeve dangling over his hand only to see the bandages had also been completely soaked through. The blood mixed with the water and spread throughout the white bandages wrapped around his hand.

_Damn it, _Allen cursed in his mind, and began unwrapping the bandages. _I swear, if this gets infected-_

"What the hell are you doing? Get out here," Kanda called from the kitchen.

Allen looked to the doorway to see Kanda looking at him from the kitchen. Once again he had the first aid kit out on the bar table and was waiting to change Allen's bandages.

Allen just sighed irritably and left his hand to fall to his side with the bandages only half unraveled.

Stopping in front of Kanda he showed him his hand and Kanda began unraveling the rest of the bandages himself.

"Who said you go into _my_ closet and get _my_ clothes?" Kanda asked in an emotionless tone.

"Well if your house wasn't the temperature of Antarctica, then maybe I would have thought twice about putting on your damn clothes," Allen replied back in an equally flat tone.

"Hmph."

Kanda was done cleaning and changing the bandages in five minutes, and went to stir whatever he was cooking in the pot.

"What's that?" Allen asked, sitting on a bar stool and crossing his arms. He was going to try to get some answers as to why they were awake so early in the morning.

"It's last night's dinner," Kanda answered while turning off the stove. "It's going to be today's lunch and breakfast." Kanda walked over to a cupboard and pulled out a plastic blue container.

"You mean breakfast and lunch?" Allen teased.

Kanda slammed the container down on the island with unneeded force that made Allen flinch. "Look, don't try to piss me off so early in the damn morning."

Allen shrugged. "Your fault. Why are we up anyways if it's so damn early?"

Kanda started spooning food into the blue container as he answered Allen in a very calm tone. "I'm resigning today."

_Wait, what? _Allen had his full attention on Kanda now, the grogginess from lack of sleep evaporating like water.

"…What?" Was all he had managed to verbally say.

"Isn't that just obvious?" Kanda said. He put a lid on the blue container and set it aside. He turned to address Allen now. "We're changing location."

"What about me?" Allen asked, stepping from off the stool and becoming serious about the sudden situation.

"You're coming with us to the station and the new location." Kanda said.

"_Us_?" Allen asked confused, arching an eyebrow.

"Lavi and I."

A small flash of panic ran across Allen's face. Kanda didn't miss it, but he didn't know what to make of it and just let it slide for the time being, because it seemed as though Allen was trying to change the flow of conversation.

"I thought you were going to keep me away from the police station?" Allen questioned, settling back into his previous collected demeanor.

"That was before last night…" Kanda trailed off. "Well I can't exactly leave you here by yourself," he went on to say, and turned back to the pot on the stove to take it to the sink and wash it. This was when Allen decided to finally ask about his beloved items.

"My ring," he started, and Kanda stopped walking. Halfway to the sink, he turned around to look back at Allen. "When do you expect to give it back to me?" It sounded almost as if it wasn't a question, but a flat-out demand for an answer.

Kanda stared at him for a few seconds, then turned back around and walked to the sink to set the pot in it. "When you can be trusted."

Allen had actually expected that answer. "Which is when?" He said in the same flat-out tone.

"Most likely never," Kanda said so simply it just irked Allen to his core. He tried his hardest not to find some sharp item in the kitchen and stab the Asian man where he now stood. That would be counter-productive as Allen very quite well needed him at the moment. He decided to ask about everything else.

"And what about the things you took from me last night?"

Kanda filled the pot with water to the brim then let it to soak in the sink. He reached into his pocket and took something out of it. He walked over to Allen and placed it in his hand saying "here."

Allen looked at it, it was his lighter, and because there was no gas in it Allen rendered it useless, but kept it all the same.

"What about the other thing you took?" Allen asked as Kanda started to walk away.

"What is this other thing?" Kanda asked while holding up the small black plastic box.

"I can't tell you," Allen said reluctantly because he knew Kanda wouldn't give it to him from an answer like that.

"Then you can't have it," Kanda said while walking away again.

"Fuck you," Allen hissed though gritted teeth.

"Kids shouldn't curse," Kanda said from down the hall. He turned into his bedroom for a while, leaving Allen to soak in his anger from being called a kid. Trying to calm himself to no avail he let out an aggravated yell at which the same time Kanda reappeared at his doorway.

"I'm _not_ a kid! I'm-"

"Are you really," Kanda cut him off with his dead- serious tone. It took Allen off guard, and all previous anger was forgotten. Kanda continued walking back down the hallway to the kitchen holding a pile of something in his hands that Allen paid no mind to. He was too busy focusing on what Kanda had just said, but couldn't wrap his head around it.

"Huh?"

It was apparent to Kanda that Allen didn't seem to have understood what he said and tried to reword it another way.

"Are you really as old as you say to be." He was in front of Allen again now, and all of a sudden that hardcore act seemed to melt away from him and all that was left was a person who looked as though the whole world was just placed in front of him and he had been told to fight it by himself. His eyes of a stormy gray and the sky's blue became innocent and wide like a child's, yet were still scarred with the pains of life that reached all the way down to his heart, and it made it ache. It was an almost unbearable sight, but Kanda stood his ground in front of him, because he realized Allen was completely defenseless now.

"I…I don't know," Allen let out in a low whisper, lowering his head away from Kanda's steady gaze to the sight of his own feet. Kanda, however, was not satisfied with that answer. In fact, it just raised more questions.

"What? How can you not-"

"Look I just don't know okay?!" Allen's head snapped back up as he shouted at Kanda before he could even finish his question. His eyes were now filled with fury, but they were not dry as a trail of salty water spilled out of his left eye to trail down his cheek. Kanda had to take a step back as Allen continued yelling. He was surprisingly loud.

"I don't know what year I was born or even the day, I have to just go by what other people have told me and how long I can remember being alive…" his voice cracked and he remained silent after he finished his sentence. Even with Allen being like this Kanda still needed answers. The more he knew the better, no matter how he got his information.

"How the hell did you come up with the number seventeen," Kanda asked in a semi-soft voice. He didn't want for Allen to yell anymore, it was annoying, for lack of a better word. "There's no way you can be that old," he added while looking over Allen's frail-looking stature.

Allen wiped his face with the sleeve of his outsized robe. "Apparently there is. According to master anyways," Allen whispered the last part so softly that Kanda couldn't even hear it.

"Who?" Kanda asked for clarification.

"No one," Allen said quickly. "Anyways," he started again before Kanda had a chance for more questions. He seemed to have calmed down now, but it could have just been a cover-up. "I change my age with the year. Around the end of each one I just estimate that my birthday must have gone by, so I change my age." Allen then took his fingers on his right hand and started counting something. When he finished he said "I just turned seventeen."

"How long have you been doing that?" Kanda asked.

"Doing what?" Allen replied confused.

"Counting your age like that."

"For about…twelve years perhaps? Ever since I can remember being alive, really."

Kanda looked at him with a strange expression. This was the first time he had ever met someone who didn't know how old they were.

"Damn it," he said, scratching the back of his head in aggravation. Allen just looked at him.

"What?" he said.

"You're so damn frustrating, that's what!" Kanda snapped. He put his hand back down and looked at Allen who, after a few seconds, began to develop a small smile that turned into a giggle and then into a laugh. It had surprised Kanda. He never knew that Allen could laugh like that. So child-like and carefree, but it still annoyed him.

"What's so damn funny," he asked.

"You are!" Allen exclaimed in the middle of a laugh. "Getting angry over nothing."

"Piss off," Kanda said while looking away. Being laughed at like this made him feel like an idiot.

_At least he's not crying anymore, _he thought while thinking back to Allen's face. It disturbed him and he never wanted to see that expression again. It was so very…saddening.

…_What?_ Kanda couldn't understand why he was thinking in such a way. It was a confusing turn of emotion that he couldn't make head or tail of. Deciding to just ignore it all together he threw what he had been holding in his hands at Allen's head. It hid his face from view and made him stop laughing.

"What, hey!" he said after realizing a bunch of clothes had been thrown at him. "What's that for?" He began to pull them off his head.

In the pile of clothes was a pair of black skinny jeans, a thick red and black plaid jacket, a plain long-sleeved red shirt and long black knee-high socks. They were amazingly small for someone of Kanda's size, and Allen found himself wondering why someone like him would have clothes like this and looked at him questioningly.

Kanda picked up on his look and dismissed it with the turn of his head. "Just get ready, you have fifteen minutes."

"Yes sir," Allen said in mock obedience and walk off to the room he had slept in and closed the door behind him.

**Wednesday, November 30****th****, XXXX**

**5027 hours (5:27 A.M)**

Allen had gotten ready in the designated time given to him, and met Kanda at the front door where he received a brand new pair of black boots and the blue container with his food in it. As he sat down to put his boots on and tie the laces he saw a hand appear in front of him, fingers wrapped around something small and black. The hand opened, revealing the black box that Kanda had taken from him yesterday. Allen picked up his head and looked in surprise to Kanda who was returning the look with a blank one. Allen reached out a hesitant hand to take the box and was relieved when Kanda didn't retreat his hand and allowed him to take it.

Immediately Allen did something to the box, something Kanda couldn't see because he had covered it with both hands, it made a single beeping sound, a red light flashed, and then Allen pocketed the object.

Standing up from tying his shoes and food in hand he looked at Kanda and waited for him to open the door.

"What, did you do?" Kanda asked, curiosity taking over him.

"You'll see," was Allen's only answer.

Kanda raised an eyebrow at this, but let it go. If he was going to see later then he was going to see later. He turned to the door and unlocked it from the inside with his key and ushered them both out the door, locking it from the outside behind them. They made their way to the black lotus, got inside, and Kanda drove off like the mad man he was.

**Wednesday, November 30****th****, XXXX**

**600 hours (6:00 A.M)**

Kanda swerved into the Police Station parking lot and into his reserved parking space. Allen never felt so better the entire ride there as this moment when he knew it was finally over. The night before he thought Kanda had only driven like that because they were trying to get away from the shooters, but now he knew that was how he normally drove. Honestly he would have thrown up right there if he had anything in his stomach _to_ throw up.

Kanda wasn't affected at all. Instead, he pulled his keys out of the ignition and turned to address Allen.

"When you're here you'll be under a different persona," he started.

"A what?" Allen said, no knowing what the word meant. Kanda just ignored him and went on.

"This is your story: You're the son of my neighbor and I've been asked to babysit you for the day. Got it?"

Allen looked indignantly at him. "Baby sit? I'm not a-"

"_Got it?_"Kanda said with finality. He didn't want to start another fight and waste time.

"Yeah yeah," Allen sighed, resigning himself from attacking the subject.

Kanda opened his car door and Allen followed in opening his and they continued their conversation outside and headed toward the backdoor entrance.

"You'll be staying in my office while I talk to the new chief."

Allen rolled his eyes as he knew what Kanda really meant by that statement. "Locked up again?"

Kanda seemed to like ignoring Allen since he didn't answer his question and continued on saying what he was. "Lavi will be here soon."

"Here??" Allen said while looking around and behind him.

Kanda looked at him strangely. He had noticed this constant behavior with Allen every time Lavi was mentioned. He always seems on guard and alert, as though he was scared of him, but couldn't figure out why. Then he remembered the time when they first 'met'. Allen had hit Lavi on the head with a brick. He was probably just scared that Lavi would try to get revenge and whatnot and probably always watched his back when the redhead was around. He didn't know, however, that Lavi was a very forgiving person. Kanda knew this from the years they had been partners, and that Lavi would understand it as a simple mistake. He hadn't even been mad at the warehouse.

"He'll be here at the station in a short while, to talk with the Chief and I," Kanda explained so Allen would stop looking around so frantically.

"Oh," Allen said while turning his head back around to face front.

They made it to the back doors and swung them open, Kanda stepping inside before Allen. This was when something round and golden, shining in the new sunlight, flew in to the first floor of the parking lot. It made its way over to where Allen and Kanda were and slipped in the crack of the door just before it closed. It hid inside the hood of Allen's jacket soundlessly, unseen and unknown to the owner and everyone around.

***

"Don't try to leave, you won't be able to," was the first thing Kanda said when he opened the door to his office and had Allen stepped inside.

There was no one at the station at this time of the morning besides the Chief and not too many others, which was why Kanda had them come now to minimize the amount of people that saw Allen.

"Yeah ok I got it," Allen answered back not fully listening to Kanda's words and instead looking around the office to see how plainly decorated it was. There wasn't a single photograph to be found visible all throughout the room, just like at Kanda's house. As he continued to take in the look of the room Kanda continued talking.

"And don't _touch_ anything," he said warningly while noticing Allen eyeing his desk littered with scattered papers.

"Alright fine! Can you just go now so we can leave sooner?" Allen said impatiently.

"It'll be a while, that's why you have food. The blinds will be closed. No one can see you and they don't know you're here so don't open the door for anyone. My partner and I have a key so we can open it ourselves." Kanda slowly informed Allen of everything, including the bathroom that was obviously behind the only door there besides the one to leave the office, the room was basically soundproof, and that he'd know if Allen went through any of his things.

"Alright!" Allen almost yelled. "I'm not a child you don't have to tell me not to 'open the door' and 'stranger danger' and crap!"

Kanda, obviously not fazed by Allen whatsoever, simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "You might not have known."

"Why, you-!" Allen was about to start yelling again when Kanda shut the door in his face, leaving Allen in the office alone with basically nothing to do, and he decided then that it was going to be a very long day.

Slumping down on the couch he rested his back heavily on it and felt uncomfortable with the feeling on his upper back. It was as though a round metal ball had been placed in between him and the couch. Then it started to move, squirming around until Allen bolted back up off the couch and let the thing free. It escaped from the hood of his jacket and was now free to fly around the room, and around Allen, happy to see its master again.

This flying, thing, is actually a mechanical golem, with metal wings and a metal body, golden and custom-made by an unknown person. It follows only one master, and when that master dies or goes missing it goes to follow another or find the successor of that person. It has been with Allen even since he can remember being with _his _master, and at the time was also_ its_ master. Of course, it is obvious what has happened for Allen to be called the golem's master now.

"Timcanpy!" Allen exclaimed, ecstatic to be reunited with his mechanical golem once more. They hadn't seen each other since Allen had been taken a few weeks back.

He held his arms out and Timcanpy flew into them to be embraced in a hug, cradled at Allen's small chest.

"I missed you," he said while letting Tim go and leaving him to rest on top of Allen's snowy white head.

Then something came to mind, something important that had been disturbing Allen for a while now, and was the main reason he called Timcanpy.

Reaching his hand up and taking Tim off his head he held the golem in front of him and addressed him as though he were a person.

"Hey Tim, I need you to show me something." Once he had Tim's recognition and understanding he continued. "I need to make sure I'm not having mistaken identities here." He let Tim go and he fluttered in front of Allen as he gave his order. "Run by all the people's faces that I came in contact with the year of my escape from Noah's Mafia."

***

A knock on the door and a simple 'come in.'

Kanda was at the new Chief's office and quietly stepped inside, closing the door softly behind him. The Chief looked up from her papers to see who had come to see her.

"Ah, Detective Kanda, so nice to see you," she said while resting her pen down in front of her and gave a small welcoming smile. Her light brown hair wrapped in a neat bun to the bottom left of her head and glasses positioned low on her nose and neatly ironed black suit and pencil skirt made up her tidy appearance, and despite all this the distinguished dark bags under her eyes revealed the disheveled way she felt inside.

Kanda understood only all too well. After all, it was her father who was Chief before her. She was second-in-command at the time, and was the woman who Lavi had spoken with via radio the night they had been called out, the same night her father died. She had been out as well and left her father alone at the police station. Of course, following his death was the high mounds of paperwork and other things left behind and now she was made to deal with it only days after her father's passing. He felt a pang of guilt hit him somewhat, for he was leaving, making even more work for her to deal with.

"Sir, I'm sorry for your loss," he said in a whispered tone and bowing his head low, feeling so obligated for his actions as of now.

"Oh no, it's all right," she said while waving a hand in front of her. "Come now, pick your head up, there's no need for that."

With her permission he did as he was told, and with another motion of her hand told him to have a seat. As he arrived closer at her desk he could see her name tag positioned at the edge of it. In engraved silver letters on black marble, it read her last name with her position in capital letters, CHIEF SCARLES. That tag used to be her father's.

Sitting down, he got straight to the reason for why he was there. "Sir, I have something to speak with you about."

With a knowing smile she answered, "To come here so early in the morning? It must be really important."

"It is, I would like to turn in my resignation papers."

Kanda studied her face and watched as her smile faltered and fell. A sigh of exhaustion and slight confusion lined her face as she looked down to the papers she was just previously working on, and pushed them aside from her vision.

"You're…resigning?" she asked for confirmation of what she had just heard.

"Yes sir. I'm needed in other places and can't stay here."

Realization hit her and her final attempt to try to make him stay was politely shot down.

"You're the best on the force, are you really sure about this?"

"I'm sorry sir, but it's not actually my choice where I go and where I'm needed. As you know, I work for even higher-ups," Kanda explained in the best way possible.

"Of course," she said, shaking her own childishness from her system. She didn't want to be left alone and with even more work to do at the station. With the officers disappearing faster than she can count them resignation letters weren't exactly the first thing she'd want to see in the morning. "You're going to be missed," Scarles added, remembering all the acquaintances the remaining officers had made with Kanda, welcome or not.

"Also, it's not just me, but Lavi Bookman, too." Kanda wanted to finish this conversation quickly, but not rudely. There was still a long day ahead of them.

"Ah, the rookie," still a loss but not as big as a detective there was not much grieving over Lavi. Losing him was more like getting _rid _of problems instead of _making _them. "For what reason?" she asked now slightly intrigued with the answer she might or might not get.

"He'll be coming with me. He is needed as well," Kanda answered as vague as possible.

"Where is it exactly that you two are going?" she urged for more information.

"It's a secret, a secret!" Lavi called from the back of the office. Neither Kanda nor Scarles was surprised by his sudden appearance as this was all too common in their daily lives with him, so they didn't bother wondering how he got there without them noticing.

"We cannot give much information. Please process this as soon as possible," Kanda said while standing up from his chair. "We'll be leaving today."

Kanda's last sentence was surprising to her. "So soon?"

"We're needed there as soon as we can get there, I apologize for such a late notice. I didn't expect for certain, _events_, to happen. It would have just been easier with your father here to sort it out. He would have known what to do because he understood our situation."

"I understand, Kanda. What about your paychecks? They won't be processed until the end of the week," Scarles said, changing the subject from the deceased.

"I'll give you an address in which to send them to later. By the end of this week we most likely won't even be in the same continent," Kanda said with finality, ending the conversation.

"I see. Well, it was nice having you on the force," Scarles said while standing up and walking around her desk to where Kanda and Lavi both stood. "And Lavi, nice having you train with us." She shook their hands while Kanda replied "Us two, sir."

She backed away from them to look at them before smiling one last time and saying "Hope to hear from you soon."

"Of course," Kanda said and bowed before turning to leave, Lavi already having the door open. Closing it behind them, Kanda saw one last glimpse of Chief Scarles from still standing in the middle of her office before the door closed completely.

"That went a lot smoother than expected. I like this new Chief," Lavi said in an airy tone to lighten the mood.

"Don't get any ideas in your head," Kanda warned Lavi, knowing his nature with women. "We're leaving as soon as possible, which means today."

"Did you bring the kid with you?" Lavi said ignoring Kanda and pretending he said everything in his mind instead of out loud.

"Yeah, he's in my office. But anyways, we have more important things to-"

"Let's go check on him!" Lavi shouted, already racing towards Kanda's office, key in hand.

"What?!" Kanda said, yelling after him. "He's only been in there for fifteen minutes!"

"He could be hungry!" Lavi said, continuing to make excuses to go see Allen.

"He has food!" Kanda yelled, shooting down Lavi's excuse. "Lavi!"

Kanda finally caught up to Lavi and grabbed his arm, making him jerk to a stop.

"Come oooon. Let's just go see!" Lavi whined while hopping up and down like an energetic rabbit. Kanda could almost see the ears coming out of his head.

"NO. We have work to-" but Lavi slipped his arm out of Kanda's hand and once again was dashing down the hallway. "Lavi!" Kanda shouted once more. He made it to the room with Kanda right on his tail. Deftly plunging the key into the lock he swung the door open, revealing the room to the world.

The scene shocked Kanda and amazed Lavi.

There was Allen sitting on the couch staring at, _something_, floating in midair, projecting a picture from its mouth, but the projection was shut off not more than a second after the door was opened. Allen looked over to the door with the snap of his head, eyes wide, mouth open, yet unable to speak. They all just stared at each other in silence for a moment or two until Kanda finally spoke.

"What, the hell is that?" He was staring at the floating golem in his office, but directing his question to Allen. Everywhere it flew Kanda followed it with his eyes until it landed on Allen who still seemed to remain frozen on the spot. That is, until Lavi started yelling with excitement and pranced into the office.

"Whoa, that's so cool! What is it??" Lave seemed utterly amazed. Kanda seemed utterly pissed.

_Oh, so they hadn't seen…_ Allen was worrying whether or not they had seen the projected picture Timcanpy was showing him. Judging from their attitudes, they hadn't. He sighed with relief to himself and stood up from the couch with Tim in his hands.

"This is Timcanpy. He's a mechanical golem."

"Where the hell did you get something like this?" Kanda demanded, stepping closer to get a better look of this so-called golem.

"My guardian left it with me after he," Allen seemed to pause and hesitate about saying what came next in his words. "After he died."

"Guardian?"Come to think of it, Kanda had never asked Allen about his parents and things related.

Allen let Tim float away from him and into the air as he explained. "To make a sad life story short, I was an orphan and got adopted. My guardian died of natural causes. He was a heavy smoker and drinker."

"Those aren't natural causes," Kanda sneered at Lavi who began to play some morphed game of tag trying to catch Tim.

"To him, it was."

Kanda looked over to Allen and studied him form quickly. The sagging eyes and depressing form were his more distinguished features. "Guess it carried on over to you then," he remarked.

"Huh?" Allen had been looking at Tim, but not really _looking_ at him. He had been distracted by scenes playing through his mind of his guardian.

"The addictions," Kanda said, looking at where Allen had just been. Lavi almost caught Tim, but at the last second he flew upwards and Lavi tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground. Kanda just shook his head in disapproval. "Anyways," he continued, looking back to Allen, "Is this what that black box was for?"

"Actually, it's a small transmitter device," said Allen while Tim landed on his head, tail wrapping around Allen's neck. "Once activated, Tim will follow that signal and find out where it's coming from, hopefully to me. It's a nice thing to have around when in trouble."

"How the hell does something like this work?" Kanda stepped even closer to Allen and stuck his hand out to Tim who turned to it and examined it. Confirming it as not a threat he leaned his body against Kanda's hand gently and flapped its mechanical wings in approval. Kanda just continued to stare at it.

_This thing is so strange._

"It's very complicated. A lot of small parts and days of soldering," Allen explained.

"Did you build it??" Lavi asked, jumping into the flow of conversation after picking himself up off the floor.

"No," answered Allen, who began to stroke Tim's wing after Kanda had stepped away, "But I had to put it back together before." Now Allen set a different expression on his face. "What are you doing here? I thought this was going to take a while. Seems to me that went by fairly quickly." He looked between the two of them, noticing Kanda's glare at Lavi.

"We were _supposed_ to be doing something, but-"

"We just wanted to see you Allen!" Lavi exclaimed jovially while rubbing Allen's head. Tim seemed to disagree with this action and started beating its wings at Lavi's face who in return playfully shooed it away.

"Stop that!" Allen, clearly irritated, had no patience to be patted on the head like some child, and slapped Lavi's hand away, at the same time backing away from him, the back of his legs hitting the edge of the couch. Tim rested on his head, almost as if to guard Allen.

Kanda couldn't have cared less, for he had no time to deal with Lavi's childishness and tried to get them out of the office to continue working. Grabbing Lavi by the upper arm he said "We have work to do, let's go." He began to drag Lavi out of the office, and then turned around to address Allen. "And keep that, _thing_, in here."

"Yeah, yeah," Allen sighed, plopping down on the couch once more, Tim resting in his lap now. The office door closed and clicked locked for the second time that day.

_What the fuck…_ Was the only thing Kanda could think after the events that had just occurred. Along with the many questions that were left unanswered, a million more were just added to the pile. Ones like _Who was Allen's guardian? Did he have anything to do with the mafia? Did he really die the way Allen said he did? _And _What was that flying thing capable of?_ Before Kanda could ponder any further into this Lavi spoke to him.

"Hey, Yuu."

"What?!" Kanda snapped at him, tired of his actions as of late, but Lavi was surprisingly serious.

"About what we talked about last night, where exactly are we going?"

Kanda paused in thought for a moment before answering, "I don't know. Everything I told you last night was everything he told me."

Thinking back to last night Kanda had stayed up for hours packing and sorting things out while at the same time explaining the situation to Lavi over the phone. Now that he thought about it, there really was no reason to be packing if they don't even know where they're going or _if_ they're going anywhere, but INTERPOL agents must be ready to leave at a moment's notice, like Kanda always was.

"Sooo, that means we'll be staying here for a few more days?" Lavi asked hopefully.

"No," Kanda said firmly, and Lavi pouted. "He'll tell us where we have to go today, and we'll be leaving as soon as he does."

**Wednesday, November 30****th****, XXXX**

**1845 hours (6:45 P.M)**

"I'm just going to run this by them one more time," Lavi said while reading over a piece of paper he was currently holding in his hand and walking down a hallway with Kanda next to him. They had spent the day sorting everything out so they could leave. Everything from their current cases they had been assigned to turning in their firearms and their police Lincolns along with a few extra secret things that needed attending to. Finally, after twelve hours, their day was coming to an end.

"All right," Kanda said. "Is that the last thing we have to do?"

Lavi scanned his brain and came to a conclusion. "I think so, I'll check one more time, and then we can go?"

"Yeah, we're done. Everything's been turned in, checked, and approved. We'll leave after you're done," Kanda answered.

"Finally!," Lavi exclaimed, relieved with the workload finally over with. "We've been doing this all day."

"I'm just going to pick up a few things from my office in the meantime. Meet me there when you're done."

"All right, sounds like a plan!" Lavi said, and then they both went their separate ways.

Kanda made it to his office and unlocked the door, stepping inside and closing it behind him. He scanned the room for signs of Allen, eyes immediately moving towards the couch where he found him laying. Sleeping.

Allen had used his jacket as a makeshift blanket and spread it over the top part of his body, his arms rested just in front of his face and snuggled between them was the golden metal ball called Timcanpy, with its wings seeming to have disappeared into the sides of its body. Allen's white hair spread and laid across half his face, the other half exposed leaving the red scar in perfect sight. The expression he wore though was still visible, and it was the most peaceful look Kanda had ever seen on Allen's face the entire time they had been together, and it seemed to be affecting him as he felt his muscles physically relax, not knowing they were tense in the first place.

"This kid," he said softly, actually trying to not wake him.

This was when Tim made a type of static sound and came to life, wings appearing out of nowhere. He stirred out of Allen's arms to flex his wings nice and wide before putting his attention on the new arrival. He scanned him with invisible eyes, approved him, and went on to his business of sitting on top of Allen, staring fixatedly at Kanda as he went around the office picking items up and putting them in a medium-sized brown box he had brought in the room with him. He opened a black cabinet drawer and proceeded to empty it of selected manila folders and place them gently into the box. Shutting the drawer and the clink noise it made letting it be known that it was shut was what made Allen stir and wake.

He shuffled and squinted his eyes as he sat up, making his jacket fall on the couch next to him. Tim had already flown off his back and decided to land on the edge of Kanda's desk. He yawned, covering his mouth half-way with his wounded hand before he spotted Kanda. His back was turned as he was shuffling through some papers he had taken off of a bookshelf behind his desk.

"Oh," was all Allen said, but Kanda didn't turn around as he continued on what he was doing.

"Falling asleep in the middle of the day?" Kanda asked amusedly as he replaced more than half the papers in his hand back to the bookshelf. The rest were placed in the brown box which rested on his desk.

"Thanks to you," Allen responded, still half asleep and not completely aware of whom he was talking to. It seemed he was speaking a lot softer rather than how he harshly did to Kanda. "I didn't get enough sleep last night, and it's so boring in here." He randomly began to stare off to corners of the room, once again noting how bland they were even before Kanda had taken the things off of them.

"We'll be leaving soon," Kanda informed him and he began to go through the drawers of his desk. He finally spotted the empty plastic ware that held Allen's food. He then realized that after twelve hours Allen must be hungry, but he wasn't going to say anything.

"Already? What time is it-" Allen spotted the 12-hour clock and realized that time hadn't gone forward just fifteen minutes, but twelve hours _and_ fifteen minutes. "Oh…"

They let the silence settle between them, Kanda at his desk sorting through things, and Allen petting Tim between the wings on his head. Finally Kanda's attitude begged the question, and it had to be asked and answered.

"Why are you so calm?" Allen seemed back to his normal state, and was now becoming suspicious if not worried as to the answer of this question.

Kanda stopped what he was doing and looked up to Allen who was staring right back.

"Calm?" Kanda faked being at ease as he continued sorting. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"…" Allen continued staring at him, not believing at all that Kanda had no idea what he was talking about.

Kanda finished going through the drawers and put everything that he was keeping into the brown box. He stopped there and sighed, resting his hands on the sides of the box.

"I'm used to being targeted," he said and looked up to Allen who had let Tim go from his hands and was now flying freely around the room.

"But this is Noah's Mafia!" Allen shouted, standing up abruptly. "Every mafia group _in the world_ works for them. You can't even _touch _Russia!"

Then everything went quiet, as Allen noticed too late his mistake. His eyes grew wide as he stared blankly at Kanda, who was doing the same. Allen began stuttering words, trying to make a complete sentence, but Kanda spoke first.

"…Where, was that?"

"Uh, nothing!" Allen tried lamely to cover up the fact that he had just let slip the location of Noah's Mafias' headquarters.

"_**You can't even touch Russia!" **_Came a staticted voice from the air, and both Kanda and Allen looked at Timcanpy who had grown a mouth in the front of his body. Apparently he was the source of the noise, mimicking Allen's voice and words exactly.

"Timcanpy!" Allen whined in defeat as he looked at his golem as though he had just betrayed their trust.

"Russia, huh," Kanda said deep in thought.

"No! That's not what he said-"Allen tried desperately to cover up the golem's _mistake._

"Correct, that's what _you_ said," and Kanda smirked at him.

"Tch, damn it," Allen hissed lowly. He had been trying so hard to keep the location a secret, but one slip of the tongue and emotion and everything was blown.

"Alright fine," he gave up and began to explain, "You see-" but was cut off when the office door was opened and Lavi pranced into the room.

"Yo!" He greeted them both cheerfully, not sensing the atmosphere at all.

"Oh, Lavi," Kanda began as though nothing had just happened. "Done already?"

"Yup!" Lavi smiled. "Turns out, everything was okay!"

"Alright then, we can leave," he said and then turned back to Allen. "I have a nice understanding of where we'll be headed." Allen just scowled deeply at him.

"Don't go there!" Allen tried to warn him, but Tim wasn't helping him seem serious.

"_**Don't go there!" **_Tim mimicked him.

"Tim, stop mocking me!"

"_**Tim, stop mocking me!" **_Tim mocked as he started teasingly flying around Allen's head.

"Whoa that thing is so cool!" Lavi exclaimed as he began to reach out for Tim.

"Lavi pay attention! Let's go," Kanda yelled as he pushed Lavi through the office door, shoving the brown box in his hands at Lavi's chest.

Allen quickly scooped up his jacket from the couch and began to follow Kanda and Lavi.

"Tim, here," Allen gestured to Tim as he put back on his jacket for Tim to hide in it and grabbed the plastic ware from off the desk.

Kanda turned around to turn off the lights in his – in the office. It was actually no longer his. He stopped and took a second to look at it before turning off the lights and closing the door. He didn't bother to lock it - there was no point, and left the keys inside the bin hanging on the outside of his door. The label with his name on it was still there, bolted to the door. It was a strange feeling for him really. It happened every time he switched jobs like this. He always left most of the things behind because there was no point in taking them with him so the office still looked like someone was using it.

But every time, he couldn't help but feel like he was leaving a piece of himself behind as well.

He didn't know why, and it was so frustrating! He's been doing this for years and thought he had gotten used to it – moving on a seconds notice, bringing only what would be useful in the next location, leaving people and items behind – If he said it didn't affect him then he would be lying. This affects everyone. After all, they're only human.

_He's _only human.

"Kanda?"

Kanda snapped out of his thoughts. He hadn't moved from in front of his office door and was staring at his nameplate. At the sound of someone calling his name brought him back to his senses and he turned to find Lavi and Allen had stopped and were staring at him.

Regaining his composure quickly he walked over to them and they soon began all walking together.

It was the end of the workday, so as Kanda looked around he noticed their part of the police station was fairly empty. The people working here had a normal nine to five business day. Kanda being a detective was here whenever he was needed, which was all the time.

"So, where are we going right now?" Lavi asked Kanda as they made it to the doors leading to the parking lot.

"You're already packed up to leave, right?" Kanda asked to confirm Lavi had followed his instructions from last night.

"Yup, all ready to go!" Lavi answered.

They opened the back doors and walked out to the first level of the parking structure. With the entrance facing west it allowed the sun to easily penetrate through and hit them in the face, causing them to squint at the brightness of the setting sun. The frosting air bit at their faces and nipped at the surface of their jackets, but not quite penetrating them. As the sun began to disappear so did the warmth of midday.

"Then in an hour thirty meet us at the airport. We're getting last minute tickets to Europe, I'll call to see if there's any planes for nine."

_Europe? _Allen thought, confused.

"Roger, see ya!" Lavi said as he ran off to some other parking lane.

"Airport..." Allen thought out loud. "Wait, you were serious! And leaving today!?" He was actually genuinely surprised. He stopped walking as they stood in front of Kanda's car now.

"I don't joke," Kanda deadpanned as he unlocked the trunk with a click from his keys. He placed the brown box in there and closed the lid.

Allen rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Fine, don't listen to me. Just don't expect everyone to be alive by the time you've given up." He moved to his side of the car and waited for Kanda to unlock the doors.

"I _don't _give up" Kanda emphasized and unlocked the doors, slipping into his driver's seat as Allen did he same in the passenger's.

Kanda put the keys into the ignition and was about to start backing out of his parking space when he thought he heard Allen say something.

"Just, be more careful then," Allen really_ had_ said something. Mumbled actually, and Kanda just stared at him.

Then he began to laugh as he spoke "What? Are you somehow showing an emotion other than hate?"

"Look, all I'm saying is you can't trust some of the people around you. I haven't told you everything and as things stand now I can't, but I'd like for you to be alive because you provide very much needed protection for me," Allen tried to explain what he meant by him being careful and suggest a hidden message in the small speech he just gave, but Kanda didn't seem to have caught it.

It was a very small hint anyway, and Allen would have been stunned beyond belief if_ anybody _had actually picked up on it.

"Alright then, I'll start with you," Kanda said as he turned off his engine and turned to face Allen. "How can I say for certain that the information you've given hasn't been full of lies?"

"..." Allen thought for a second and looked down at his lap and the plastic ware he was carrying, contemplating for a moment.

In this time Timcanpy slipped from the inside of his jacket and landed on top of the dashboard. "You're right, you can't," Allen said to Kanda's surprise. "But I expect for there to be some level of understanding between you and I and our current situation together, and the things I tell you are what you need to know to stay alive. How about we leave it at that?" Allen finished speaking and without Kanda missing a beat smirked and half laughed as he reignited his car's engine.

"Hmph, fine by me."

**Okay, I know it's been just about two months since I updated, but hey look on the bright side this chapter is like super long, is it not?? I think I'm going to get some hate mail as to what I'm going to do to my lil' trio of Red White n' Blue. But I must! For the sake of the story!**

**So I'd like to take this time to introduce somebody. Her name is Jessi, also known as my co-conspirator, and she helps me write this story. She's kinda like a proofreader, but we still write this story together.**

**Give her lots of love! Her name on here is **VampAnimeLover254 **on here, so look that girl up!**

**But I've gone on long enough with this, so!**

**Anyways, **

**Read, Review, and stay strong.**

**-Xenophili**


	8. Surprise

**Wednesday, November 30****th****, XXXX**

**1900 hours (7:00 P.M)**

…

"_Oh. Fuck."_

_Have you ever had one of those days, where everything goes right?_

"_What the hell happened…?"_

_Then, at the very end something terrible decides to show up on your doorstep?_

…

_As we ran to the front steps of Kanda's house with Timcanpy following overhead, we found the front door kicked in, the windows smashed , and everything not how or where it was left before._

_We paused on the threshold, at first just gazing in to see everything in ruins. I tried to take the first steps in but Kanda held me back and walked in first with cautious steps. His eyes suddenly went wide as he seemed to remember something._

"_Mugen…!" he whispered, and ran to the end of the hallway, turning right._

_Not knowing what else to do, I followed him. I hadn't been to this part of the house before, but it was just another hallway with doors leading off it. I decided to look through each one since I didn't know which one Kanda was in. _

_The first one to the left lead to a basement. No lights were on so he couldn't have gone there. Another door further down the hallway on the right was a bathroom, and then the last door at the very end of the hallway on the left was a large study. There was where I found Kanda. _

_He was digging through a pile of broken glass and torn papers to get to a certain part on the floor._

_For what reason I do not know. _

_Tim floated into his office and hovered over him somewhat, looking on to what he was doing. I myself was curious as to what he was trying to do._

_Finally clearing the area Kanda used a crowbar he picked off the floor and started to pull up the floorboards to reveal an empty space below. Reaching in he pulled out what looked like from my angle a long wooden stick with an equally long black case. Upon closer inspection it was a sheathed sword with a case to go along with it._

_Kanda swiftly put the sword into the black case and slung it onto his back, standing up and facing me._

…

"We're leaving, now," he said in a firm no-play tone. Allen was already on high alerts what with Kanda's house having been broken into, but this made him actually listen to what Kanda had to say.

"And what am I supposed to do, exactly?" Allen asked as though he really couldn't do much to help.

"Go around the house. Anywhere. Everywhere. Whatever isn't broken and looks like it could be of some use pile it by the front door. Half an hour, that's our time limit here." Kanda was damn demanding, but this event seemed to put him on edge so much as to use the voice he uses at work talking to his subordinates. Allen felt like he was in the army! He even almost saluted and said 'Yes sir!'

Kanda turned back to the room to look around it once more while Allen went back down the hallway to the living room where a surprise met him.

The flipped over and ripped open couches and the broken television lying on the floor had nothing against what was on the living room wall. It was enough to make Allen turn a paler pale.

"Kanda!" Allen called out. Kanda appeared a few seconds later, agitated and stepping heavily, almost to the point of stomping.

"What do you-" At seeing Allen's face he stopped speaking and looked to where Allen was pointing. He turned around and looked at the wall, and his face turned a shade similar to Allen's.

It was very clear now. The obviousness of the whole situation slapped him in the back of the head and called him an idiot for not noticing something like this earlier.

WE'VE FOUND YOU.

"Noah's…" Kanda whispered, staring at the pentagram and the message carved into the wall. He thought it was strange how somebody would break into a house and not steal anything, for from what Kanda could tell, _nothing_ was missing.

"They were looking for something," Allen spoke out loud, staring blindly at the wall now.

"Looking? Of course they were! They were looking for me!" Kanda exclaimed as though it was obvious.

"No. Well, yes. But no," Allen replied. "They were looking for you and they found you, but you're not the only thing they were looking for. If you were they wouldn't have taken the energy to rip this place apart so thoroughly," he gestured to the rest of the house with his eyes.

Kanda's hold on the strap to the black case on his back tightened.

"And what do you suppose they were looking for?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'm not supposing anything, I was merely suggesting that they were looking for something," Allen shrugged.

"Then what do you merely _suggest_ they were looking for? _Supposing_, of course, that you _really _know." It seemed like Kanda was trying to start something.

"I _suppose_ they were looking for something important. I'm also s_upposing_ that's why they came through here with a tornado," Allen replied, catching on.

"Do you _suppose _you have any _suggestions_ as to what that _supposed_ item might be?" And thus began the word war…

"Now, if I were to suppose that they were supposedly looking for a certain supposed special item, then I am merely suggesting that I was supposing there was supposedly more to them than just ripping things apart, and I am suggesting that they are not as supposedly destructive as you suppose they are. Therefore I am also just suggesting that whatever you supposedly have was suggestively worth taking the supposed time in order to find. That also leads me to suggest that you don't even stay a half an hour here, grab your things and leave now. Of course this is all supposedly just a suggestion under the assumption of a supposed suggestion."

"…Okay, don't do that again." …That Kanda couldn't keep up with and ended fairly quickly.

"All right, fuck searching this place; everything has already been taken to holding at the airport a long time ago. There's nothing here we need," and Kanda began walking to the front door, expecting Allen to follow him.

Which didn't happen.

He stopped and turned around when an extra pair of footsteps didn't follow his own. He saw Allen just standing there with his right hand tucked into his jacket pocket staring right back at him. He didn't have any expression set on his face. It was just blank, but almost like he was expecting something.

"Oi, what the hell-"

_Click._

And then Kanda saw it. His very own gun in the hand of the last person he'd want it in. It was pointing right at him, _again_, but this time the person holding it wasn't so hesitant.

"I want my ring." That was it. Four words in one demanding tone. A dead tone declaring there was an 'either do what I say or die,' type of situation now.

His eyes had changed, too. Cold and hard. Kanda had never seen them before and didn't know what to make of it as of yet, but he'd been in these type of situations before.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing," he growled, "with _my_ gun?"

"Taking back what's mine," Allen replied unaffected by Kanda's threat and completely impassive to the currently building atmosphere that he himself was making.

The tension grew as they commenced in a stare down, each other's patience growing thin. Allen's finger began twitching on the trigger. The gun was already cocked and all he had to do was pull it. He would get his ring and get away from this place for good. He might even be able to escape the mafia once and for all. The positive sides of this just kept adding up and Allen began seeing it positive to shoot a detective in their own home. It's not like he hasn't killed anyone before—

"Alright. Take it." Allen was cut off in his thoughts by what he thought he might have heard.

_There's no way…_ he thought in disbelief but kept the expression off his face.

He lowered the gun and looked at Kanda's hand go into his coat pocket and pull out a small object. He tossed it over in Allen's direction which Timcanpy caught in his mouth. It's not like Allen could; his left hand was wounded and his right hand had the gun in it.

Tim showed it to Allen to verify it was the ring. Once Allen nodded Tim swallowed it.

"What are you trying to pull?" he snapped at Kanda and narrowed his eyes, not trusting his actions.

"I'm not going to beat around the bush," he said coldly, "I need you on my side. I need you come with me. If it means giving you what you want then so be it."

What he said made Allen smirk. "What makes you think that now that I have what I want I'm going to stay with you?"

"Not much, actually." Now it was Kanda's turn to shrug. He put his hands in his coat pocket and stood there waiting for Allen to speak.

"What do you think—"

He moved so swiftly Allen didn't have time to react. Kanda pulled his hand out of his pocket to reveal a gun and with one hand cocked it and pointed it in Allen's direction. Without hesitation he pulled the trigger that struck Allen in the neck.

Allen felt it and the sting, his eyes going wide. He tried to pull his hand up to feel where he got hit, but he was all of a sudden too weak and tired to do just that. He collapsed onto the floor and laid still. Tim flew over him frantically and when Kanda approached started attacking his head.

"Move you stupid thing!"

**Wednesday, November 30****th****, XXXX**

**1930 hours (7:30 P.M)**

_Silent humming._

_I feel it._

_It's quiet here._

_Dark._

…

_Where am I?_

…

…

_Open, you stupid eyes!_

_Wake up!_

Allen's eyes shot open and he found himself staring at his golden golem who was sitting right in front of his face, except he was sideways.

Scratch that, Allen was the one who was sideways. He was laying down on leather that was vibrating slightly. He tried to sit up and found it difficult because he couldn't move his hands. He looked at them to see what was wrong and saw that he was handcuffed. He sighed in irritation as he realized he was in the backseat of Kanda's lotus.

Tim rested on Allen's hands and did its imitation of crying seeing that his master was alive. Allen smiled at him, but then shook him off to use his hands to feel his neck. It was sore and tender to the touch but there was not bullet wound.

_Bastard shot me with a sedative…_

Allen sat there silently and glared at the back of Kanda's seat, wishing death upon the atrocious man.

Kanda looked in the car mirror and saw Allen was awake with the most hateful expression on his face and he smirked.

"You can't actually win."

Allen remained silent, not wanting to speak unless he had to.

"How did you get my gun?" Kanda questioned him.

"Outside. You weren't paying attention," was all Allen mumbled for the rest of the ride to the airport.

**Wednesday, November 30****th****, XXXX**

**2100 hours (9:00 P.M)**

"And so, do you know what she said?"

Kanda and Allen had arrived at the airport around eight and met up with Lavi at their terminal for their flight that was to leave at nine. They were currently waiting to be called to board the plane as the airport seemed to be running behind schedule, as they always were.

Lavi was now talking, or at least trying to, with Kanda about some girl he was in a relationship with and how he had tried to break up with her because they were leaving the country.

Kanda obviously didn't want to hear it but was deciding not to make a scene and meditate, making it seem like he was listening.

_Germany, huh…_ Allen had been un-cuffed once they got to the airport so as not to draw attention to him without the help of his strange appearance of white hair and red scar. Of course he got the occasional glance from passersby and a pointed finger or two by toddlers.

_The last damn place I want to be right now…_

"_Now boarding Napar Airline 82. Destination: Berlin, Germany. Repeat, now boarding Napar Airline 82. Destination: Berlin, Germany. Passengers please make your way to Terminal 9."_

"Finally," Kanda mumbled as he stood up from his chair. He didn't know if he could last any longer listening to Lavi.

They began walking towards their gate when Kanda noticed Allen was still sitting down, apparently lost in thought and staring off after a custodian that had just passed by.

"Oi," he said in his direction and it caught Allen's attention.

"Oh, right," Allen mumbled and stood up following behind Kanda to board the plane. He didn't have much of a choice now anyways so there was no point in running away. He had what he wanted and was outnumbered two to one.

They arrived at their plane where a woman was waiting to take their tickets.

"Good evening, may I see your tickets please?" she said with a smile.

Kanda took them out and showed her the three tickets, but instead of taking them she was looking at what Kanda was carrying.

"Um, I'm sorry sir, is that a sword?"

"It is," Kanda answered plainly.

"I'm sorry but that can't be taken as a carry-on onto the plane," she said a little hesitantly with the look she was receiving from Kanda.

"I have permission to," Kanda stated, showing her a card he was handing her along with the three tickets.

She took all four things and looked at the card. Once looking it over her eyes widened as she looked back up to Kanda.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, sir! I didn't know," she began apologizing.

He gave her a brief nod telling her that it was fine. He just wanted to get on the plane.

"Right," she said as she looked back to the tickets, "First class, Seats one and two A on your left, and one B on your right," she ripped all three tickets and handed them and the card back to Kanda. "Enjoy your flight." She was back to her calm demeanor.

They walked through the tunnel and onto the plane where they found their seats in the front.

"I sit next to Allen!" Lavi said as Allen sat down at the window seat in A.

Kanda, however, thought differently as he sat in the aisle seat in A. Lavi pouted and went to sit in beside them in row B.

"No fair."

"If you could just stop acting like a child, for two MINUTES," Kanda's voice was growing in volume as he began growling at Lavi. He'd been getting on his nerves ever since they got to the airport.

"Okay, okay," Lavi said, taking the warning.

Allen turned to the frosting window and sighed. This was going to be a long plane ride.

"What am I doing here…?" he whispered to himself.

Thinking over the past few days, things seemed to have been moving in fast forward. One moment he was locked in a room, doomed to die, then he was locked in some detective's house, and then locked in his office…

Was it him or was this becoming a recurring theme?

Anyways, he just couldn't believe he was leaving the country under arrest with people he didn't even know, and to Germany no less.

_Master…_

Kanda looked over to Allen and studied his expression. A sullen one, and once again lost in thought staring at nothing.

People began to slowly fill the rest of the plane, though by the end half of it was still empty. Nobody shared row B with Lavi so he was able to be annoying all to himself, the way Kanda liked it.

"_Attention passengers, please take a seat as we will be departing shortly. Note that when the 'fasten your seatbelt' sign lights up it will be time to do so, and please keep them fastened until we reach a desirable height…"_

The flight attendant came on the speaker and began going through directions and cautions, noting where the emergency exits were among other things. Allen pulled Tim out from the inside of his jacket. He had deactivated him so the metal detector wouldn't go off while passing through it in getting into the airport. He tapped at certain spots and Tim came back to life. He stretched his wings out and looked up to Allen who was pulling something out from Tim's side.

It was an ear bud. He stretched the chord out and put it to his ear.

"Tim, play the message master left."

The message began to play and Allen closed his eyes, listening intently to it.

'_**Hey, Allen**_

_**Come to think of it, I've never asked you this before, but… Do you like Tim?**_

_**I asked you to keep hold of him for me, but…**_

…_**To be honest I was always planning on giving him to you.**_

_**I've told him he can do as he likes from now on.**_

_**You may not want to listen to me, knowing that I'm carrying on the Fourteenth's will…**_

…_**But in case you're thinking you're being made to walk a path that me and the Fourteenth chose for you…**_

_**I just wanted to tell you – you're wrong.**_

_**A path is something you create as you walk it.**_

_**The ground you've trodden hardens, and that's what forms your path.**_

_**You're the only one who can create your own path.**_

_**So stop wearing that mask of "Mana."**_

_**Walk, on your own.**_

_**If you haven't given up yet, that is.'**_

The recording was set on repeat, and as Allen listened to it over and over again it began to lull him to sleep. He closed his eyes, realizing they stung and refused to be opened again. Tim shuffled in Allen's lap to make himself invisible to everyone else on the plane and would rest there until Allen woke once more.

Kanda noticed Allen doze off, but it wasn't the same type of sleep he witnessed in the office. This one was more stressed and many more tense muscles were visible in the face, especially around the eyebrows where he seemed to be frowning. Perhaps it was what he was listening too?

Kanda shook off the feeling of eavesdropping. Holding his sword to lean on his chest he crossed his arms in front of it and fell into a light doze.

**Wednesday, November 30****th****, XXXX**

**2245 hours (10:45 P.M)(Ireland Time)**

"_Attention passengers, due to the inclimate weather our arrival time will be delayed by approximately one hour…"_

Kanda's eyes opened at the sound of someone speaking over the radio. Realizing it was a message notifying that they were to be on the plane for another hour he closed his eyes once more and made a low growling sound at the back of his throat.

It was then that Allen woke up. Though reluctant he reopened his eyes to hear the message being repeated. He groaned in annoyance hearing it and rolled his head to look out the window. It was somewhere between lightning, hailing, and snowing with a mix of high winds and the plane was in the middle of it.

They were probably going to go around the storm cloud, which could take god knows how long.

Allen pulled down the shade on the window to block the depressing scene and turned to the aisle where he saw Kanda with his eyes closed. Thinking he was asleep Allen tried to get away with something while he thought he still could.

He took the ear bud out and replaced back to the side of Tim's head and waited for a flight attendant to walk down the aisle.

"Excuse me," Allen said in a formal tone using his British accent.

Kanda twitched, but it went unnoticed by Allen. For a moment Kanda thought Allen was addressing him, but from the tone of voice he doubted it. Allen would never speak so nicely to him. He kept his eyes closed and waited to see what would happen.

"Yes, how may I help you," came a voice off to Kanda's right, and he heard Allen reply to it.

"I would like to order a glass of scotch, please," he said in that smiling tone.

The flight attendant bowed and walked away from their aisle and Allen sat back in his seat, staring at his shaded window through half-lidded eyes. Putting on such a fake smile…he hadn't done that in a while.

"Here you are, sir," the flight attendant said as they came back with a silver tray and a single round glass sitting on it.

Allen turned away from the window with a smile in place already as he accepted the glass handed to him.

"Oh, thank you," he said, and rested back into his seat and swirled the contents around before silently bringing it up to his lips to take a sip-

-to find it missing from his hand.

He turned to the left where he knew Kanda to be sitting to find the man had already downed half the glass.

"Hey!" Allen began to raise his voice but then remembered where he was. By the time he realized this and set on just glaring at Kanda instead his glass of scotch no longer existed.

"Keep your voice down, we're on a plane," was all Kanda said as he placed the now-empty glass in one of Allen's cup holders. Allen ignored his statement.

"That was _my _glass of scotch," he growled.

"You're under age," Kanda replied as he settled back into his seat, closing his eyes once again.

"The drinking age was lowered _five years ago," _Allen shot back as he also leaned back in his seat, intent on not looking at Kanda anymore.

"You'll be sober while under my surveillance," Kanda said as his eyebrows settled into that eternal frown he had while dealing with Allen and his antics.

"You can't even allow me _some_ privileges? I'm not a child," Allen glared into nothing as he said this, knowing he was just doing it for the sake of argument.

"We've been through this," Kanda sighed as though annoyed.

"It doesn't change anything," Allen gritted out, frustrated.

"I'm not going to argue with you."

"I didn't say you had to."

"All right then."

"But you can't treat me like some kid!" Allen clenched his fists, tired of this back and forth with the aggravating man.

"I will if I'm legally your guardian," Kanda said, dropping a bomb in his words.

Allen's neck snapped to him at the statement, mouth gaping and eyes wide.

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

Allen's eyes narrowed. "I'll get myself emancipated."

Kanda shrugged. "You wouldn't be able to."

"Why not?"

Kanda almost chuckled. "Because we wouldn't _let _you."

Now Allen had had it. "God damn it," he hissed while standing up from his seat. "I'll smoke when I want and drink when I want as long as I can obtain them by myself I'll do as I fucking please. You _won't _control me."

He began to step out to the aisle, the space between rows big enough for him to stomp by in front of Kanda with ease. He was jerked back, however, when something caught the crook of his arm and held him there. He looked back to meet eyes with Kanda's, menacing and daring Allen to do something before he got his words out.

"Yes. I. Will," Kanda's baritone voice made it all the more intense, and for a moment Allen's eyes flashed something strange before he threw the expression away. His arm went slack in Kanda's hold and his eyes averted themselves from Kanda's, no longer able to take the glaring resemblance they had to something in his past.

Kanda caught hold of the change and almost felt guilty for grabbing at Allen, though he knew not the reason for Allen to now be looking as though the very ground was betraying him.

Allen jerked his arm out of Kanda's hold and mumbled something like "bathroom" before disappearing down the aisle, his glare set on everything that didn't remind him of Kanda.

Kanda settled back into his seat, grumpy and folding his arms over his chest like some child. Never would he have guessed Allen would react like that, so it wasn't his fault in his mind.

"Hey, Yuu," Lavi said as he came to stand in front of Kanda, leaning on the back of the seat in front of him. "Maybe you could give him a little bit of leeway, huh?"

Kanda looked up to Lavi and glared. Apparently he had seen the spat he had with Allen moments before, but he couldn't believe Lavi was choosing Allen's side.

"You can never just give a little. We'll give him and inch, and he'll take a yard." At that Lavi sighed and moved back to his seat on the other side of the aisle, picking up a book he was reading before to concentrate on it once again.

Kanda glanced to the side of him where he saw Tim conspicuously placed out of sight, though he was out enough to hiss at Kanda. Kanda frowned at the thing and turned to face forward and close his eyes once again to pretend nothing had happened at all.

Fifteen whole minutes must have passed before he felt shuffling in front of him and a slight rush of air ran across his face as someone passed by him to seat themselves in the seat next to him by the window. There was the slightest hint of smoke lingering on the breeze and Kanda inched open one eye to see Allen had returned from wherever it was he had been. He was facing the other way, once again focusing on the covered window, paying mind to nothing else.

In the corner of Allen's seat Kanda could see Tim wriggling around to rest upon the crook of Allen's neck as the boy slowly and distractedly lowered his eyelids as though the world's problems were asking him to fix them all at the same time and he was trying to block them all out.

Kanda decided that, for the moment, the lingering odor in the air didn't actually bother him.

**Thursday, December 1****st****, XXXX**

**0100 hours (1:00 A.M) (Germany Time)**

"Finally! That plane ride seemed like it lasted forever!" Lavi said as they headed over to baggage claim and looked for the suitcase Lavi checked in at the airport back in Ireland. Kanda's possessions were either destroyed back at his house or were currently being transported to Berlin, Germany sometime later. Allen never had anything to bring in the first place.

"Lavi it was only three hours," Kanda said as he rolled his neck. Sure it might have been only three hours, and it might have been first class, but sitting still like he did for the entire ride had made his neck stiff. That's why he hated flying.

Lavi only shrugged at Kanda as he grabbed his suitcase off the rotating platform. "Time passes slowly when you're bored." He straightened up and began rolling his suitcase behind him as all three of them walked towards the airport entrance. Since it was so early in the morning it was almost completely deserted. "So? Where are we picking up your car?"

"They're bringing it around here," Kanda gestured in front of them to the valet lane outside the airport doors. "We'll just have to wait for them."

"Hungry…" Allen mumbled to himself as the two detectives walked in front of him. He missed how Tim's wings perked up at the word, and how he squirmed out of Allen's hood and to the ground of the carpeted Terminals, away from them.

Allen picked up his pace and came to stand by Kanda instead. "Where exactly is it that we're going?" He glared at Kanda simply because he didn't have any other expression he wished the man to see.

Kanda didn't even spare him a glance as he responded. "INTERPOL's main branch headquarters."

Allen stumbled. "Say what now?"

"It's not like we can just go and barge into Russia with guns blazing," Kanda said as though he were explaining simple concepts to a child who just didn't seem to get it. "We have to report back now, anyways."

"Man I'm just tired," Lavi said, and a yawn escaped him for emphasis. He glanced at his watch before he continued. "I can't wait to get there already and sleep! Oh yeah! We haven't lived in headquarters for a while now, have we?" He turned his head to address Kanda, to which the man simply nodded in agreement.

"We? A while? I thought he was just a rookie?" Allen said, confusion riddling his words as he addressed the question to Kanda.

"That's his cover up for his previous job. He's been working for INTERPOL for years. There he's the gun specialist, computer technician, and record keeper, or bookman," Kanda riddled off jobs Lavi did and acted as thought they were nothing special.

"I have super observation skills!" Lavi couldn't help adding, to which both Allen and Kanda ignored.

"What were you then?" Allen couldn't help but ask.

"Gun handler, sword specialist, and martial arts trainer." Kana stated it simply and factually. After that Allen fell back a few steps to contemplate the new information.

"Swords, huh," Allen whispered to himself as his eyes focused on Kanda opening the doors to the airport for them to file though.

Just before he stepped out he felt something tug at the hem of his jeans and he looked down to see Tim, a package of pretzels in its mouth as its stubby little feet pulling on his jeans.

"Tim!" Allen said, surprised, as he picked Tim up and allowed it to drop the package in Allen's open hand. It stood there, looking up at Allen and waited to be praised.

By this time Kanda had turned back to them and raised an eyebrow as Allen tried to hide something behind his back.

"What," he said, making Allen jump and look up to him from his hand.

"Nothing," he tried for casual, but his tone came out a bit strained.

Kanda easily pulled out his hand from behind his back and saw the package of pretzels, not knowing where on earth Tim would have gotten them from. A quick sweep of the eyes and Kanda saw that everything was mostly closed save for the check-in and check-out centers.

"That thing steals?" Kanda said, glaring at Tim as it tried to scuttle out of sight up Allen's jacket sleeve.

Allen, trying to show that he didn't much care what Kanda thought of Tim, said with a shrug, "I'm its master. It does whatever it takes to look after me and make sure I'm okay. I was hungry so it got me food."

Kanda let Allen's hand drop and turned back around to face Lavi, who was beaming for some reason.

"Speaking of food, I'm starving! Let's go eat something here!" Lavi gestured back to the airport just as Kanda's car came rolling up the valet lane.

Kanda only glared at Lavi. "I'm _not eating _at the _airport_," he growled out just as the man that was driving his lotus stopped in front of him, holding his keys out as if scared to get too close to the man himself. Kanda snatched them away angrily as Lavi responded to him.

"Then we will eat at the cafeteria at headquarters!" he let out a shaky laugh. "I can wait that long."

**Thursday, December 1****st****, XXXX**

**0200 hours (2:00 A.M)**

An hour later found Kanda's black lotus pulling up to another valet lane in front of a tall office-looking building in the middle of Magdeburg, Germany. It was roughly thirty stories tall and three-and-a-half acres wide.

Kanda stepped out of the driver's seat just as a woman came by the car and took his keys from him. She waited until everyone was out of the car and the trunk was relieved of Lavi's luggage. The valet drove off with the car to park it in a near-by private car lot, leaving the three people to gaze up at the building before them.

"Ugh, I'm getting tired of sitting down for these long periods of time," Lavi complained as they finally made their way up the steps of the cream-colored building, holding his suitcase since it couldn't roll up stairs.

Kanda was right behind him, though paid no more mind to his constant complaining. The two of them reached the building's double front doors and opened them. Lavi slipped inside while Kanda stopped and turned around to locate the third and last member of their group.

Allen was still at the foot of the steps.

Kanda had already reached his limit a long while ago with Allen constantly lingering behind them, and made his way back down the stairs in angry stomps. Lavi simply waited at the top for them.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" he said as he grabbed Allen's arm and yanked him up the first few steps. After Allen stumbled and caught his balance he snapped out of his trance and shook his head to reply to Kanda.

"Nothing. Just dreading meeting some people here," he mumbled as he glanced once again at the sign that rested like a crest on both building doors.

That made Kanda stop.

"You… _know_ people here?" He questioned cautiously. That wasn't possible; Allen had never been here before in his life.

As far as Kanda was concerned.

Allen had continued up the steps without Kanda, continuing his explanation even though Kanda was clear out of ear shot.

"Yes, well, let's just say I have a history with this place. I'm not exactly welcome, you see…"

…

…

"Oh, supervisor! They've arrived!" A man with an accent called out to the semi-darkened room, his Australian accent carrying. His sandy hair bobbed around his face as he turned away from the computer screen to address someone behind him.

"What? Already?" said another man, coming up to the seated one with a coffee cup in hand.

He wore a lab coat like the man who had called out to him, but he was also wearing some strange beret atop his head. His hair was straight and black but curled up to his face at the ends. He leaned over some to get a better look at the monitor from over the sandy-haired man's shoulder.

"What's this?" The seated man said. He squinted at the screen as he focused on the people walking up the steps to their building.

Lavi was standing at the top to hold the doors open. Kanda was stomping back down the stairs and had just grabbed someone off camera. The person, along with Kanda, was brought back into focus, and the man squinted harder.

"There's three of them..!" he gasped at the end, catching his supervisors attention just as he was turning away.

"Yes there are supposed to be," the man said as he sipped at his coffee. "Huh," he said as he once again leaned over. His eyes went wide as he, too, focused on the boy being dragged up the steps by Kanda. "Is-isn't that-"

"No, it's not possible!" The seated man yelled as he jumped up from his chair and backed away from the screen.

"But, the golem!" the supervisor retorted, just as surprised as his subordinate. He pointed towards Allen's shoulder where a gleaming glint of gold hung out from his jacket hood. "There's no mistaking it…" He had to set his cup down on the table before he dropped it. His hands were shaking.

"Watcha guys looking at?" Some third person said as they came over to see why the two men were surprised. He took one look at the monitor through his big swirled coke-bottle glasses, and gasped. "That's-"

"Brother? What's wrong?" A woman came to see this time, addressing the supervisor, and now the monitor was frozen on a close-up of Allen's face. She, too, gasped, and covered her mouth with both her hands. "Oh my!"

"There's no way!" The sandy-haired man yelled, slamming his hands down on the back of his chair. He turned around and dashed out the door to the brightly-lit hallway.

The supervisor turned around as well, and called after him.

"Reever!"

…

…

"We have to talk to the supervisor so you'll be seeing him first," Kanda said after he recovered from his shock on the stairs. He would get his answers, but it would be better if his supervisor was also there to confirm whatever it was Allen said.

"He's a really nice guy!" Lavi put in and they all walked down a hallway to reach the back of the first floor.

The hallways were mostly white or cream-colored. Every once in a while a hallway would come up with a single strip of color riding right along the walls as if they were used as a color-coding system. Allen didn't ask about them. He didn't think he would get much of an answer, anyways.

They turned a corner and headed down a hallway with a brown stripe running along it. As they walked further down they heard something faintly resembling running footsteps and someone calling out a name. It all happened too fast, however, and before anyone could react, someone had come crashing right into them, or more specifically, Kanda.

"Kanda!" the man yelled just as he tried to stop but found he couldn't in time as he rounded a corner and was met face-to-face with none other than the man he was looking for.

He skidded, but only succeeded in tripping over himself and pushing Kanda down, ramming heads.

"Ngh, damn it…" the man said as he had also succeeded in smashing his nose against the floor, and was now bleeding freely.

Kanda was rubbing at his head, still spread out on the floor, and about to choke the person who had run into him when he saw who it was.

"Komui?" he said as he helped the both of them up without any help from Lavi, who was too busy laughing a few feet away, or Allen, who looked like he'd rather be shooting himself in the foot.

And instead of getting a 'thank you' or a 'sorry-for-running-into-you-and-ramming-heads' apology from the man he'd just helped up, he was being yelled at.

"Explain!" his supervisor, Komui, said nasally as he squeezed his nose shut.

"Explain what?" Now it was time for Kanda to be angry. What had he done? Why was he being yelled at? "What the hell's wrong with you? What's going on?" he continued as he saw more people in lab coats run down from where his supervisor had just come from.

It was Reever, the man with the sandy hair, who spoke next. "Kanda, why's he with you? Where-_How_ did you find him?" He pointed at Allen, after wheezing out that last sentence, who was trying to unsuccessfully hide behind Kanda.

"What the fuck?" Kanda snarled. "Why does it matter?"

"Kanda, do you realize who this _is_?" The one with the coke-bottle glasses spoke now, huffing and face red.

"Who this_ is_?" Kanda repeated, looking from Allen to the boy, and back again. What was he missing? Why was he surrounded by all these people? And why did it seem like _he _was the one _who didn't know_ _anything_?

"He's-he's" Glasses wheezed out, but had to stop. Reever finished for him.

"Cross's apprentice!"

Kanda paled and swung around completely to face Allen, who flinched under the intense gazes of everyone.

"Cross? Cross Marian!" Kanda said, and everything went silent.

It was Lavi who just had to break the silence.

"Whoa, didn't see that coming."

..

..

..

**I can't imagine how long it's been since I've updated. How long _has_ it been? Two years? Wow, and my style of writing has changed quite a bit. Still hope you all are still satisfied with this!**

**Sorry!**

**-Xenophili**


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